St. Michael’s, Santa Fe High gain today’s Jim Pierce Memorial baseball tournament semifinals

St. Michael’s, Santa Fe High gain today’s Jim Pierce Memorial baseball tournament semifinals, while the Lady Horsemen open with a setback in the Roseanne Noedel Memorial softball tourneyFavored Bernalillo teams advance in both semis, with four games at each St. Michael’s field

By Arnie Leshin 

Cell phones must have been a big hit at Thursday’s first round of the annual Jim Pierce Memorial baseball and Roseanne Noedel Memorial softball tournaments hosted by St. Michael’s.

This was especially true for the schools in the 4-team fields that had entries in both. Either that, or some took a short walk on the campus to catch the action at both fields.

For Bernalillo, it was a good trip up I-25 when its baseball (8-1) and softball (4-1) teams emerged with victories in both, the Spartans winning their first- round baseball test, 10-0, over familiar Pojoaque Valley, with the two having already met twice and the Elks on the losing side.

That moved Bernalillo into today’s semifinals against defending tournament champion Santa Fe High (4-4), which turned back Taos, 8-3, in a rematch of last year’s finalist here, with it scheduled for a 1:30 start.

The other semis pairs St. Michael’s (3-3) versus Cobre (3-3).The Horsemen topped Espanola Valley, 10-2, while the Indians shut down Raton, 13-0, and that is slated for an 11:45 a.m. start.

On the softball field, the Lady Horsemen weren’t as fortunate as they played their initial game of the season and fell to Albuquerque Academy 13-0, in five innings. The Chargers (6-3) now move on to play Raton, which played its opening game against Moriarty and had no problem in winning 17-2 versus Moriarty (1-4), also in five frames.

Bernalillo’s girls are now 5-1 after setting down Capital, 13-0, in six innings and face Espanola Valley (3-3) in the other semis. The first of the semis, Bernalillo-Espanola is scheduled for 11:20 a.m., and the other contest has Raton and Academy penciled in for 4 p.m.

Pojoaque, Raton, Espanola and St. Michael’s also had teams on both the baseball and softball fields, but the Elks and Elkettes went 0-2, and the Tigers, Sundevils and Lady Horsemen split their games.

In the baseball competition, the consolation games match Raton against Espanola and Taos versus Pojoaque. In softball, it’s Capital going against Pojoaque and St. Michael’s meeting Moriarty.

All of these games will be played today, with the championship and consolation rounds set for Saturday. Finals will be for first, third, fifth, and seventh places.

It was all zeros for the two Bernalillo victims, and baseball teams Santa Fe High, St. Michael’s and Cobre were able to even their records at .500. The same was true for the Espanola softball.

Familiar foes in baseball are Cobre and St. Michael’s. In last year’s state tournament, the 4th seeded Horsemen lost the first of the best-of-3 in the first round at home, but bounced back to win the next two before winning in the quarterfinals over Bernalillo, but bowing out in the semis against eventual champion Portales, both games by one run.

As for the softball field, it was Bernalillo and Raton making it to state, with the 4A Spartans losing 1-0 in the quarters to Cobre, while 3A Raton turned back Jal, 3-0, and then lost to eventual champion Dexter, 6-4.