Pirates 2-0 in Districts

The Grants Pirates baseball team are off to a great start in district play after going 2-0 last week in district play with an 112 rout of the Valenica Jaguars (7-11,0-1) on the road on April 2nd followed by a narrow 4-3 defeat of St. Pius High School on April 5th at home. “I thought we played well after a shaky first inning—once we settled into the game, we pretty much had control of it,” said GHS head coach Mike Furbee of the Valencia game. Pirate notables in that game included pitcher Niko Young who pitched 5.1 innings and had allowed 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned run and 8 strikeouts. Eric Barela Jr., Noah Lundstrom and Dominick Gonzales with 2 RBI’s a piece. Izeyah Manzanares and Diego Lopez had 1 RBI each.

The momentum from that game carried the Pirates forward to the next district game, a closer game, with a stronger opponent as the Pirates hosted the St. Pius Sartans (10-7, 0-2). “In the Pius game I felt we got away from our hitting approach after the first inning---but our pitching and defense was able to keep us ahead after putting up 3 in the first inning,” said Furbee. The Pirates came out swinging in that first inning as Gonzales doubles a fly ball to the right field allowing Manzanares to score , Pirates 1-0. That play was followed by Barela and Lunstrum, who had stolen bases to put them on a scoring position on 2nd and 3rd base, scored a run each off a double by Manzanares, Pirates 3-0. The strong Pitching of Manzanares and the defense controlled the tempo for the rest of the game. Manzanares pitched 7 innings and allowed 4 hits, 3 runs, 1 earned run, and had 6 strikeouts. “My mindset was just to do the best I can to throw strikes and just stay confident,” said Manzanares of his pitching strategy. “Let them put the ball in play and let my teammates back me up.

For their part St Pius made it a game scoring a run in the 2nd and 5th inning keeping the score 32 until the 6th inning when Camren Mc-Dougale singled and then scored off a wild pitch making the score 4-2. The Sartans managed a run at the top of the 7th to make the final score 4-3.

“This district, in my opinion, is the toughest in 4A and it will be a battle until the end,” said Furbee of his upcoming district play. The Pirates will host another district rival, the Highland Hornets (1-11, 0-1) on Tuesday, April 9th. Currently the Pirates are number 1 in district 5 4-A ahead of Belen High School (12-4, 2-0). Valencia comes in at 3rd in districts followed by St. Pius and Highland.

The Pirates faced off with the Bloomfield Bobcats (8-4, 2-0) after the St. Pius game and handily defeated the Bobcats 10-1 and 9-5 in a non-district double header on April 8th.

CIBOLA COUNTY SPORTS WRAP-UP

The GHS lady softball team is currently 3-14 after 2 recent district losses to Valenica High School (2-12, 1-0) by a score of 10-3 on April 2nd and a 11-1 defeat by St. Pius High School (10-4, 1-1) on April 4th.

The GHS track team recently participated at the Farmington Invitational on March 30th and notables for the Pirates were Laila Martinez who placed 1st in the 400meter run with a time of 1:03.30. Martinez also placed 1st in the 3200meter run with a time of 13:18.22. Tori Felipe garnered first place in the javelin with a throw of 28-2.75. Knight Long of the GHS boy track team placed 1st in the 200meter dash with a time of 24.71. Andes Lazos placed 3rd in the long jump with a jump of 19-4. In the 4x200 meter relay the Pirates placed 2nd with a time of 1:35.99. In the 4x100 meter relay the Pirates took 3rd place with a time of 46.11. They also placed 3rd in the 4x800 meter relay with a time of 9:58.22