Pirate Baseball District Champions

The Grants High School Baseball Team got the job done last week as they defeated the St. Pius Sartans to claim the district championship in district 5 4-A.

“Our first goal coming into the season was the district championship—-and we got that,” said Mike Furbee, head coach of the GHS baseball team.

The first innings were a slugfest as the Pirates trailed early by three runs at the top of the first inning, then went on an offensive run of their own scoring five runs making the score 5-3 after just one inning.

“We got off to a shaky start with three errors – we were able to answer quickly with five runs,” said Furbee.

St. Pius cracked their bats and made five runs-in at the top of the second inning and the Pirates slugged back with four runs of their own to make the score 9-8 Pirates after two innings. The Pirates didn’t trail again after the second inning.

In the third inning, the Sartans scored one run at the top, while the Pirates mustered five runs to make the score 14-9 Pirates. The Pirates went on to score three more runs to the Sartan’s one run for a final score of 17-10 Pirates.

“District Championship– We Got That” – GHS Head Baseball Coach Mike Furbee

“We were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of fans that were there to support us–the crowd played a big part to help close the game in the seventh inning,” said Furbee.

Izeyah Manzanarers pitched two innings allowed four hits, eight runs, four earned runs, five walks and one strikeout. Niko Young pitched four innings, allowed four hits, two runs, two earned runs, six walks and two strikeouts. Domonick Gonzales pitched one inning, had one walk, and one strikeout.

Boudy Melonas had five RBIs, two hits, two runs and four at bats. Nick Bustos had four RBIs, three hits, two runs, and five at-bats. Gabriel Marquez had two RBIs, two hits, three runs, and four atbats. Eric Barela had two RBIs, one hit, one run, and one at-bat. Domonick Gonzales had one RBI, two hits, three runs, and four at-bats.

The Pirates followed up the win with another district win over the Highland Hornets whom they defeated by a score of 16-2 on Friday, April 21.

“It took a few innings to get going–much different atmosphere on the road on a game that didn’t really mean much—but we were able to get the job done,” said Furbee of that game.

Senior Gabriel Marquez pitched five innings allowed two hits, two runs, two earned runs, two walks and 11 strikeouts in that game.

The Pirates, on an 11game winning streak, improve to 20-4 and 7-0 and have a tough home game against district rival and current number three in the state, and number three in district, the Belen Eagles (17-6, 3-3).

Pirate Softball and Golf The Lady Pirates softball team is currently 6-17 and 2-5 after dropping two games of a non-district double- header against Navajo Prep 20-1 and 12-5. They played their final game of regular season on Tuesday, April 15 against the Belen Eagles (12-11,3-3).

The GHS golf team has been participating in recent Spring tournaments.