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Horsemen and Tigers have met twice in the regular season, with St. Michael’s losing one on the road and sweeping the doubleheader at home
By Arnie Leshin
To Augustin Ruiz, there’s nothing like playing at home.
In last year’s opening round of the state 4A baseball tournament, St. Michael’s first-year head coach Augustin was fortunate to open at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex, especially after visiting Cobre won game one, 2-1, Friday afternoon.
But Saturday brought the Horsemen a doubleheader sweep, 6-4, 4-3, in front of their faithful fans. If it was on the road, it might have been a different story, as in a miserable trip returning to Santa Fe.
The year before, under then head coach Dave Vigil, they played at district foe Robertson and lost 2-0 and 3-2. No doubt it wasn’t a pleasant ride home on I-25.
But this time St. Michael’s gets home field advantage and meets up with a familiar district foe in Taos. The teams met three times during the regular season, with the Tigers winning 9-8 at home and dropping two to the Horsemen on the road.
“They’re a good team,” Ruiz said. “But I feel good to play them at our place. We know the mound, we know the ballpark, we will have the home field advantage.”
Last season, Ruiz’ team made it to the semifinals before losing 4-3 to eventual champion Portales. In the quarters, it got past Bernalillo, 10-9.
Now they come in as the seventh seed at 16-10 overall and 9-3 in district for
the second-straight time. Taos will arrive at 15-11 overall and 7-5 in district.
The winner plays the survivor of the contest matching 2nd seeded Silver versus 15th seeded Socorro.
But first things first. Ruiz still hasn’t decided on Friday’s starting pitcher and expects the Tigers to start either senior right-hander Santiago Cortez or sophomore southpaw Noah Armijo.
“Both are good pitchers, we faced each one,” Ruiz said, “and they are a scrappy ballclub.”
Game time Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m.
“This will be our (six) seniors playing at home for the last time,” said Ruiz, “but we want to get past this round and keep playing.”
Senior righty Sean Latham could be the Horsemen starter, although Ruiz is concerned about the 101 pitches he threw last Saturday. Ruiz also knows that Latham wants the ball, wants to pitch. If he doesn’t start, it would be one of the team’s other four starters.
Elsewhere, 2-4A also has 3rd seeded Robertson (21-4) playing host to 14th seeded Albuquerque Sandia Prep (8-16), while 13th seed West Las Vegas (11-13) travels to 4th seeded Portales (16-10)
Then there’s Santa Fe Indian School (15-10) out of 5-4A, with the 12th seed heading for 5th seeded New Mexico Military Institute (19-7).
In 3A, Santa Fe Prep (6-14) comes in as the 15thseed and will head for 2nd seeded Estancia (21-2).There’s also 11th seed Pecos (11-14) taking the road to 6th seeded Dexter (14-5).
The quarterfinals for 4A are Thursday at Rio Rancho High School. The 3A quarters will be Wednesday at Rio Rancho Cleveland High.
Albuquerque Hope Christian (20-6) is the top seed in 4A and Texico (23-2) in 3A.
