Sunny skies greeted Thursday’s opening day of the Southwest Junior Little League Baseball Regional played at the St. Michael’s ball field

Texas West triumphed over New Mexico champion Shorthorn, Texas East mercy-ruled Louisiana, and Friday will see host Santa Fe and Colorado after byes

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

Kudos to the District 1 Little League staff for scheduling its Southwest Junior Little League Baseball Regional in the morning hours.

That’s the way its set up for the Regional that began Thursday and continues to Monday, when a champion will advance to the annual International World Series in Taylor, Mich.

The sun were shining brightly in the opener that saw the Texas West team from the Abilene Wylie Little League turn in an 8-3 win over the New Mexico state champions from Carlsbad’s Shorthorn Little League.

That moves Texas West into a Friday match-up with the host Santa Fe Monsters who won the district, but hasn’t played since doing so over the Espanola All Stars back on July 8th.

Game two of the doubleheader played with temperatures in the 80s saw Texas East from the Houston West University Little League wrap up an 11-0 triumph over the Bogalusa Little League representing Louisiana. The 10-run mercy-rule took affect after Louisiana batted in the last of the fifth inning.

Not long after, a drizzle was followed by heavier rain as the crowd left the Christian Brothers Athletic Complex at St. Michael’s.

The Horsemen’s baseball field was dressed up well as the baseball Regional replaced the Softball Regional played in Santa Fe for five-straight years before moving up to Los Alamos last year. The outfield grass looked fresh and was trimmed. Same with the infield that included the pitcher’s mound and home plate.

Fortunately, the games were over as the skies emptied.

Friday morning finds the scheduled 9:30 a.m. contest between Texas West and Santa Fe leading off the doubleheader. At the slated noon time, Texas East will take on the Colorado team from High Plains Little League. Colorado received a first-round bye and it wasn’t surprising to manager Jason Lachermeirer.

“It’s the third time we’ve gotten a bye,” he said with a chuckle as he spoke of the District tournament, the State tournament, and now.

Shorthorn batted first and quickly took a 1-0 lead on three singles and an RBI from Brandon Deal. It held up after Texas West went scoreless in the first, but the second frame gave it the lead for good when it scored three times off starting pitcher Blaine Wilson. There were four singles and a two-run double off the bat of Cooper Cothran.

Then the margin was increased to 5-1 after two more runs crossed the plate in the third on run-scoring hits from Landon Williams and Dash Albus, son of the manager, The boys from Carlsbad rounded out their scoring by adding two more runs in the fourth on RBIs from Garret Tucker and Josh Carrillo. In the fifth, the lead grew to the final score on four hits and a walk.

The Wylie kids went with five pitchers, and the win went to left-hander Cooper Cothran, who went three frames and struck out the side in the sixth. He had five Ks in all after coming on in the fifth inning.

The Colorado team took in the second game, one in which it saw its Friday second-game opponent get a sharp six innings from starting southpaw Matt Fleming. He allowed only two hits, one each in the first and fourth.

The West University team scored twice in the second, three times in the third, once in the fourth, and its five runs in the top of the fifth gave the Louisiana team one more turn at bat. Bogalusa collected four hits in all and employed five pitchers, most of them having control problems.

In all, Texas West walked eight times, had two of its batters hit by pitches, and came up with 10 hits. In the five-run fifth, it scored on six base-on-balls, two hit batters, and not a single hit.

Connor Barlett, son of the league president, came through with three singles, an RBI walk, and a stolen base.

It took two hours for the two contests.

The day’s highlight films had to go to Shorthand. In the fourth inning, with a runner on first, its left fielder Jacob Echavarria raced in to make a shoe-string catch and then fired a perfect throw to first base for a double play.

In the fifth, with a runner on third, it was centerfielder Josh Carrillo catching a fly ball and quickly followed with a perfect throw home to get the double play. It came after the same runner had handily stolen back-to-back bases.