SOFTBALL SEASON UNDERWAY

Until her final season in 2016, Roseanne Noedel, had been St. Michael’s head softball coach since 1988, after she passed away from a battle with cancer, it was sad, and now her former assistant Joe Alvarez begins his fourth season at the helm with the annual Noedel Memorial Tournament that will begin with four games on Thursday at the Christian Brothers Activities Complex.

But first the Lady Horsemen opened the campaign with a 8-6, 13-10, doubleheader sweep of visiting, non-district opponent Taos.

“We have a fairly young roster,” said Alvarez, whose daughter Cia was the starting shortstop in Noedel’s final season, her niece Claudia was in the lineup as was outfielder Erin Gantt, whose father Taylor was then the school’s president. “We have plenty of freshmen, six, two sophomores and two 8th-graders, one junior and three seniors.”

Still, it was good to open with a win and 8th-grader Marcella Ruiz, the catcher, had a 5-for-8 day at the plate, as did freshman Emily Montoya and junior Carmen Pacheco both going 4-fotr-7. In game one, Taos rallied from a 5-3 deficit to take a 6-5 lead in the top of the seventh inning, but in the bottom half it was Ruiz bringing in the winning run on a bases-loaded walk.

In game two, St. Michael’s bolted away to a 9-1 lead after two frames. Senior Mo Valdez was the starter in the circle, was replaced and then returned to close out the contest.

“We still have a few players learning the game,” Alvarez said, “but our experienced players are doing a good job of assisting the newcomers.”

Now for the quarter of games to begin the Noedel tournament, the opener at 9 a.m. had Espanola against Capital, at 11:20 a.m. it’s West Las Vegas versus Bernalillo, at 1:40 in the afternoon Raton takes on Pojoaque Valley, and then comes the 4 o’clock game with Moriarty, which is 1-2.

It’s a big day of softball to again honor the memories of Coach Noedel.