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Capital High’s hopes for the post-season 5A softball tournament took a wrong turn in Saturday’s doubleheader defeat at District opponent Espanola Valley
At Santa Fe High Saturday, Demonettes drop pair to Albuquerque Manzano in District 2-6A
By Arnie Leshin | April 23, 2017
No brooms, but it was still Saturday sorrow for the softball teams of Capital and Santa Fe high schools.
Both suffered a double dip, the Demonettes at home to District 2-6A foe Albuquerque Manzano, 16-1 and 8-2. For the Jaguars, it was at District 2-5A rival Espanola Valley, 10-5 and 15-0.
For Santa Fe High, it’s the stretch run to another losing season, both overall now at 7-15 and 0-5 in district, with the season finale at home Saturday in a doubleheader with Albuquerque Eldorado.
Game one was decided early as the Mustangs (12-8, 4-4) jumped on top with six first-inning runs, added three each in the second and third frames, and forced the 10-run mercy-run with four more in the top of the fourth.
The only answer Santa Fe High had was a run in the bottom of the fourth. It was its sixth loss in a row and eighth of last nine starts. In seven district outings, it has scored only a dozen runs.
Meanwhile, Monzano won its fourth straight behind an errorless defense and 11 hits. Its pitcher, senior Vanessa Torres, struck out four and walked one. At bat, she had a 3-for-4 game. Senior Savanna Sedilo and junior Haley Valdez batted in three runs each.
In the second game, it was close for awhile. The Mustangs scored once in the first, once in the third, to gain a 2-0 lead, but then they pushed across three more runs in the fourth.
The Demonettes retaliated with two of their own in the fourth, but Manzano added one in the sixth and two in the seventh to get the sweep. The Mustangs came away with eight hits, Santa Fe High five. Manzano committed three errors, the Demonettes a pair.
Up at the Sundevils, Capital, under second-year head coach Sig Rivera, has been having an impressive season, staying around .500 overall and in contention for district honors and a berth in the post-season. Over the last four seasons, the program had won only 12 times.
But this result probably ended all that thinking. Behind Los Alamos and Espanola by one game heading into the DH on the road, the Jags came to play, but the home team was in control.
In game one, the Sundevils fell behind 2-0 after the top of the first, then scored seven of their own over the first two frames, picking up 11 hits off of Capital junior starter Adrianna Almeida, who went six innings and struck out three.
The winning hurdler, Alyessa Aguilar, allowed 10 hits and whiffed five in going the distance. Game two was called after five innings via the 10-run mercy rule. Here, Espanola came up with 11 hits and scored at least three times in every frame as the Jaguars helped with seven errors.
In the circle in this game for the Sundevils was Meranda Romero. She went four innings with four strikeouts and allowed one hit, a single by senior Breanna Palmer. It advanced their record in district to 8-1 and 13-10 overall.
Wednesday, they play co-leader Los Alamos in White Rock. The winner would own a 2-games-to-1 advantage in the head-to-head matchups.
Needing a split to remain in the race, Capital’s post-season thinking might have also ended with these results. It has three games to go and must win all three, then hope for what is now an unlikely gift from the state tournament selection committee. But at least Rivera’s program is making some headway.
Another obstacle is that the tournament has been dropped from 16 to 12 teams.
As for Santa Fe High, 6A has been a tough nut to crack. The rivalries among the four Albuquerque schools in addition to Clovis has been a struggle. The first year in 6A, it was in District 1, which was considered the best district in the state, then it was realigned to District 2, which isn’t too bad either. But play as you may, for it’s only a game, win or lose.
