Michael’s drops District 2-4A opener to visiting Roberson

Michael’s drops District 2-4A opener to visiting Roberson Tuesday in a game where the weather dropped temperatures into the low 40s, and brought a windy, snowy and just nasty day Santa Fe Indian School won its fifth straight by handing visiting Espanola McCurdy a 12-2 non district setback

By Arnie Leshin 

It didn’t take long for the St. Michael’s baseball team to see that Robertson could be the team to beat in District 2-4A.

In Tuesday afternoon’s visit from the Cardinals to begin district play, the Lady Horsemen fell 7-3 and dropped to 7-7 overall while Robertson advanced to 11-1 overall.

But both teams had to put up with a day that brought threatening skies, a steady wind and temperatures that fell to the low 40s. And as the game was being wrapped up, the light snow turned to a wet, windy snowfall.

St. Michael’s committed a pair of costly errors and the Cards pieced together four hits and two walks in a seven-run fifth inning against Horsemen starting pitcher Jude Mondragon.

Other then that, Mondragon pitched well, and that was the only inning in which he faced more than the minimum three batters.
Mondragon threw 78 pitches in six innings of work. But miscues and key hits had him on the mound for 25 minutes in the 7-run frame.

The Horsemen, who are home to West Las Vegas in district play Saturday, scored on an RBI double off the bat of Sean Latham, a run-scoring triple from Derek Roybal, who also scored in the fourth inning to go with his two extra-base hits, and an RBI single from Raul Lopez.

For Robertson, Brandon Lucero hurled the distance with nine strikeouts and a pair of walks. Seven of the nine starting Horsemen had at least one hit, but they also stranded seven runs, four of whom were in scoring position.

Santa Fe Indian School won its fifth in a row by turning back visiting McCurdy, 12-2, in a mercy-rule 5-inning non district contest. The Braves are 10-3 overall and don’t play again until April 10 in 5-4A play at Albuquerque Sandia Prep.

McCurdy scored twice in the top of the first, by Indian School responded with three in the bottom half and seven more in the second to go with a two in the third, and after the Bobcats were scoreless in the fourth, the game was called.

At Pojoaque Valley, Taos won 15-7 in the 2-4A opener, and are now 7-6 overall while the Elks dropped to 5-9.

At Raton, the non district contest brought a 3-2 win for the Tigers over West Las Vegas, which is now 5-4 overall.

Pecos’ overall record is now 5-4 following the 15-2 non district setback at Santa Rosa. The Lions are now 7-3 overall.