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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Zia's Juniors Knocked Out

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
          Destinie Garcia was the last East Mountain Little League all-star left standing.
        The Manzano High freshman-to-be from Sandia Park, out of four EMLL juniors-division softball augmentees assigned to Zia Little League's team, was the only East Mountaineer who played in the state 13- and 14-year-old tournament at the Alameda Little League Complex in Albuquerque on Saturday morning.
        The other three EMLL girls were absent due to injuries, a previously planned family vacation and other reasons, the latter on which Zia manager Claudette Chavez wouldn't comment.
        So, Garcia gutted it out all by her lonesome.
        "I know that one of them quit, and one of them went on vacation," said Garcia, who played in left and right field for the gold-clad Zia squad.
        All in all, the state tournament wasn't a bed of roses for Zia.
        "It feels good to play in the state tournament," Garcia said. "But I just don't think I'm doing that good."
        Garcia undoubtedly was too hard on herself, and Zia, as a team, did give it the old all-star try.
        Zia only trailed 3-2 after one inning against Copper Little League in the tourney's first round. Copper, based out of Bayard in Grant County, is the reigning state juniors champion.
        Zia's Crystal Stacey, who started at shortstop and was moved to the pitcher's position in the fifth inning, poked a fly ball to right field for a base hit in the bottom of the first. Dominicka Chavez, the manager's daughter, and Michaela MacGillivray scored off Stacey's hit, one of three Zia hits during the game.
        But Copper, with aggressive baserunning, quickly pulled away and ultimately defeated Zia 18-2 in five innings. The mercy rule shortened the contest.
        Zia's hits included a double by Natasha Griego in the fourth inning. But her slower teammate was tagged out trying to make it to third from first in the same play.
        Copper's pitchers, Bianca Alivez and Brittany Madrid, struck out six, walked six and hit a batsman. Madrid zipped around the diamond for a legitimate inside-the-park home run in the first inning.
        Dominicka Chavez was Zia's starting pitcher, and she gamely stuck it out through four innings. Chavez got two Ks, walked three, hit a batsman and gave up 14 hits. The Grant Middle School eighth-grader-to-be, who said she will attend Sandia High as a freshman in 2009-10, used an array of pitches.
        "I threw the fastball, a drop-curve, and the changeup," she said.
        "And the drop, too," her mother added. "It's different from the drop-curve."
        Dominicka Chavez acknowledged that Copper's push-it-to-the-limit baserunning strategy might have flustered her and her teammates.
        "A little bit," she said.
        Batting for Zia, Griego was 1-for-1 with a double and a run, Stacey was 1-for-2 with two RBI, and Chavez was 1-for-2 with a run. Garcia was 0-for-2 along with five other Zia players who failed to get a hit.
        Bernalillo's Coronado Little League eliminated Zia 19-2 in a losers' bracket game on Saturday afternoon, said JoAnn Kalas of the District 8 administrator's office.
        Zia did not win a contested game in either District 5 or state tournament play. Its only victory came when Mile High Little League was forced to forfeit its district losers' bracket game on June 30 due to a player shortage after one of its girls was declared ineligible following Claudette Chavez's complaint.
        The top two teams in district qualified for state.
        <b>Majors All-Stars</b>
        Chloe Nance, East Mountain Little League's sole majors-division softball all-star, was all set to travel to play in the state tournament at Copper Little League's fields in Bayard beginning with a game on July 11.
        But the 12-year-old Cedar Crest resident's dream of going to the big dance was dashed when her Atrisco Valley Little League team, of which she was the only augmentee from EMLL, pulled out of the competition at the last minute.
        "I was really mad," said Nance, who is an Eisenhower Middle School eighth-grader-to-be.
        Atrisco qualified for state by virtue of taking second place at the District 5 tournament, which was played at Vista Grande Community Center in Sandia Park on June 27-28.
        "We ended up not going to state," Atrisco coach Guero Garcia said. "I had three girls that quit on me all of a sudden. Chloe, she was one of the ones whose heart was broken, one of the ones who were upset we didn't get to go. I had her pitching. She also played left field, and I put her some at second base."
        Nance, however, was happy that she was selected as an all-star and was able to participate in the district tourney.
        "Just because I got to play," she said.
        The key, however, is East Mountain did have some softball all-stars this year, some of whom did get to play in the postseason. That hasn't happened often in the past.