GRANTS, N.M. - Grants received the 8 seed in the 4A Nusenda Credit Union state baseball tournament. The 8th seed has always historically been a tough seed as you play the 9th seed which is usually a challenging team. In this case, the St. Pius Sartans. A 9th seed is an equally or better talented team that has a good line-up and better overall depth than most mid or higher seeded teams. That is the challenge the Pirates faced this year in the state tournament’s first round. The Pirates did have the advantage of hosting and they had beat the Sartans not once but twice in district play.
The Pirates unfortunately were unable to get any wins and move on to the 2nd round.
In a best of 3 series at home the first game was a must win and it was an extra inning thriller however the Pirates came up short 8-7.
“We had beaten Pius twice this season by 1 and 2 runs and knew it would be another battle,” said GHS head coach Mike Furbee. “We just didn’t get it done.”
In that first game on May 8th, St. Pius struck the ball well and scored 3 runs in the 1st inning. Defense ruled the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings–no score for either team–it wasn’t until the 5th inning that the Pirates were able to score 2 runs, however, the Sartans added 1 run to their score also in that inning, 4-2 Sartan lead.
At the top of the 6th the Sartans added 2 more runs,however, the Pirates swung back with 3 runs of their own, 6-5. The game tightens.
The Pirates scored a run in the 7th to make the score 6 all. The 8th inning did not produce a run for either team. At the top of the 9th inning the Pirates scored a run as did St. Pius—7all. It came down to the extra innings. St. Pius scored a run at the top of the 10th inning and the Pirates were unable to answer—St. Pius with a win in game 1.
“We had multiple opportunities to score in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings to win the game— we just didn’t get it done,” said Furbee.
Estevan Barela pitched 8 innings in that game allowing 16 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned runs and 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.
Evan Taylor pitched 1 inning allowing 2 hits, 1 run and 2 strikeouts.
Floyd Lee had 2 RBI’s and Eric Barela, Daniel Garcia, Evan Taylor and Zeth Villasana had 1 RBI apiece.
Joziah Ortega and Garcia had 2 hits apiece while Barela, Taylor, Lee, Derek Rhoades and Nathan Nieto had 1 apiece.
In the second game on Saturday, May 9th the Pirates lost that game 7-3–ending a great season.
Furbee summed up the series by stating, “Some of our youth showed up in pressure moments but it’s a great learning experience and we’ll be back”.
In that game Evan Taylor pitched 6 innings allowing for 4 hits, 4 rus, 3 earned runs, 4 walks and 6 strikeouts.
Joziah Ortega pitched 1 inning allowing for 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs and 1 walk.
Lee and Nieto had 1 RBI apiece in that game.
The Pirates ended their season 18-10, 8-0.