St. Michael’s hosts the Jim Pierce Memorial baseball and Roseanne Noedel Memorial softball tournament

St. Michael’s hosts the Jim Pierce Memorial baseball and Roseanne Noedel Memorial softball tournaments with four games each in Thursday’s
opening round of 3-day ball Horsemen, Bernalillo, Taos, Cobre head the baseball field, while softball appears to be wide open for the competition that concludes Saturday

By Arnie Leshin 

At St. Michael’s, you can stroll over or you can check out the scores via your cell phone as the Jim Pierce Memorial baseball and Roseanne Noedel Memorial softball tournaments take the field Thursday on the school’s campus.

No admission fee, and it’s only a short walk from the baseball diamond on the school’s eastside to the softball circle on the west end. In between is the football field and the track and field oval.

The Pierce tournament has been an annual event, while the softball tournament was added when long-time head coach Noedel passed away from cancer in 2016.

Last season was also the initial one for Horsemen head coach Augustin Ruiz and Lady Horsemen head coach Billy Purdue, Jr.

The softballers had lost a number of key players from the season after Noedel died, one in which her brother, Ron, served as co-head coach, a role he previously had for quite some time.

And Ruiz replaced David Vigil.

Left with a young, inexperienced squad, Purdue’s team had a losing campaign and this tournament will be its first contest of the new season.

Ruiz, though, put together a stellar season, winning District 2-4A at 9-3, and entering the state tournament as a fourth seed. The Horsemen then dropped the first of three in the first round to visiting Cobre, 2-1, but bounced back to take the next two, 6-4 and 4-3.

Next came a 10-9 win over Bernalillo in the quarterfinals before losing 4-3 to eventual champion Portales in the semis. They went 7-3 in one-run games and triumphed twice with shutouts and lost once.

Now St. Michael’s is 2-3 and goes against Espanola Valley (0-2) in the third game of the first round scheduled for 1:30 p.m. The tourney opens at 9 a.m. with red-hot Bernalillo (7-1) meeting Pojoaque Valley (3-2) for the third time this season.

Santa Fe High, which replaced head coach Tony Martinez with former assistant Ian Farris, is 3-4 and faces Taos (2-5) at 11:14 a.m., and winding up at 4 p.m. when Cobre (2-3) plays Raton (1-1).

Taos was 5th seed in the state 4A tournament, topped Albuquerque Sandia Prep, 6-4, 5-4, in the quarters and bowed to eventual champion Silver, 7-2, in the semis. The Demons in 6A come off a 9-15 campaign,

As for Bernalillo, it is performing on the diamond as it did in the recent basketball season. Here, the Spartans were top-seed in 4A and lost in the championship to six-time defending champion Albuquerque Hope Christian in only their second setback.

Now comes their baseball team. It has won three times by one run, and its lone loss was 6-3 to visiting Grand County from Mosab, Utah. It has scored 49 runs and yielded 16. One of its three shutouts was 1-0 over St. Michael’s back on Feb. 8, and it has also defeated Pojoaque twice.

Then there’s Cobre, which returns to St. Michael’s after losing there in the state tournament. The Indians usually get away to a slow start, but should get past 3A Raton.

But it’s early and some teams have players just changing gears from basketball to baseball.

Nearby, the Lady Horsemen open their season versus Albuquerque Academy (5-3) in the contest scheduled for 1:40 p.m. Bernalillo’s girls, as their boys do, will open at 9 a.m. against Capital, which is 3-1, while the Spartans come in at 4-1.

In game two, Pojoaque Valley (1-2) meets up with Espanola (1-3) at 11:20 a.m., and concludes at 4 when Raton plays its first game versus Moriarty (1-3).

From this field, Bernalillo and Raton played in the state tournament, the Spartans in 4A and the Tigers in 3A.

Bernalillo was the 4th seed at state and lost in the quarterfinals, 1-0, to Cobre, which made the finals and lost to Silver. 7-5. Raton came in as 3rd seed, shut down Jal, 3-0, and was then ousted in the semifinals by eventual champion Dexter, 6-4.

In the girl’s state tournament, it’s one and done in the first round. With the boys, it’s a best 2-of-3 in round one. But that’s a long way off.