SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
Monsters will host Southwest Regional to be played at St. Michael’s starting Aug. 3, with winner to head for World Series in Taylor, Mich.
By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today
The barrage began Friday night and continued Saturday morning, and after the Santa Fe Monsters and Espanola All-Stars crossed the plate 48 times, the Monsters came out on top both days to advance to the upcoming Junior Little League Regional.
Not only did they advance by winning the District One championship, but also come in as the host when Southwest Regional play begins Aug. 3 at St. Michael’s.
Thus, manager Mark Quintana’s team now can devote its wait to practicing as it avoids the state tournament and automatically advances to the last stop before the World Series in Taylor, Mich.
Friday night, it was 25 runs plated as the Monsters prevailed 14-11 in seven innings at Franklin Miles Park in Santa Fe. Saturday morning, the hit parade continued when the Monsters outscored the visitors 16-7 in seven innings.
That ended the season for Espanola, but it gave its all, only to be outscored each day in the best-of-three finals.
As for the Monsters, who won the Santa Fe title at 11-1, they will be checking out the state tournament that will be played July 14-16 at Albuquerque’s West Mesa LL, and in Carlsbad at the Bob Forest Sports Complex. From this opening round, the top two teams will move on to the championship round July 21-23 in Rio Rancho.
From there, the state champion will join the host Monsters in a field that will bring Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas East, and Texas West to the ballpark of the Horsemen.
Vying for the state title is Rotary from District 2, La Plaza Las Vegas from District 4, Westgate from District 9, Copper from District 7, and Shorthorn from District 6. All have won their district championships.
And all the Monsters can do is practice and wait.
To recap the district final, game one Friday night was close for five innings, than the Monsters took advantage of shaky defense to score eight times in the bottom of the sixth. But Espanola responded with seven of its own in the top of the seventh as the Monsters also became sloppy in the field. But , Espanola came up short.
Now needing to win Saturday morning and set up a Sunday noon game to decide the winner of the best-of-three, again the All-Stars came up short. They produced runs, but the Santa Fe team continued its hit parade from the previous night.
The Monsters started right-hander Luc Jaramillo on the mound, and after they scored five times in the top of the third inning, Jaramillo had a problem finding the strike zone in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases on walks, but then recovering to strike out the next two batters and getting the third out on an infield grounder to keep the runners stranded.
In the fifth, Santa Fe upped the lead to 11-0. Espanola pushed across two runs in the same inning to drive Jaramillo from the hill, and held the Monsters scoreless in the sixth. In their half of the sixth, the All-Stars scored four more times and chased two other hurlers from the mound.
The lead was trimmed to 11-6 before right-hander Chris Graham came on to get his first hitter to hit a come-backer to the hill and which he turned into a double play.
In the top of the seventh, Espanola had its own pitching troubles and Santa Fe added five more runs. In their last at-bat, the All-Stars could score only once and it was the Monsters celebrating.
In other Little League baseball state tournaments, the 8-to-10 year olds play in the first round Friday night at Santa Fe’s Alto Park where the Metropolitan LL plays, with the first game scheduled for 6 o’clock. The state championship returns to the same site July 14-16, and is the final stop for this age group.
