Five wins in a run for the streaking St. Michael’s baseball team

St. Michael’s baseball on a roll while Santa Fe High is going in the opposite direction.

On Saturday the Horsemen ran their winning streak to five by sweeping District 2-3A foe Santa Fe Indian School on the road, 14-4 and 12-3, on a mixture of hits, runs and pitching. In the opener, it was starting hurler Owen Gruda going six innings from the mound via 77 pitches, and in the closer, it was Isaac “Ice” Ruiz, son of head coach Augustin Ruiz, with 91 pitches over seven frames.

This advanced head coach Ruiz’ Horsemen to 10-5 overall and 3-0 in district. They have outscored their opponents by an average of 9.2 runs while tallying 16 runs during that span. It’s their latest hot streak after stumbling at the outset and losing three of their six contests, surviving mostly on errors and gifts the other teams were given them.

But during the annual Jim Pearce Memorial Tournament two weeks ago, Ruiz shook up the lineup. The offense has now averaged 9.3 runs over the next nine games. He moved junior Rahul Williams out of the leadoff spot and inserted senior Derek Martinez there, and also took freshman Santiago Martinez out of the No. 8 hole, put “Ice” up at No.2, slid Williams into the cleanup spot  and put John Leeder into the 6th hole.

And all has been well after these changes were made as the Horsemen are now averaging 9.3 runs a game and the pitching has also followed along.

Other wins for St. Michael’s came in a doubleheader at Santa Fe Indian School, with the Horsemen pounding out 16 hits in the 16-hit opener, and a dozen in game two while holding the Braves to nine and four in both outings and Indian School also committed five errors.

St. Michael’s tallied one each in the first and third innings, pushed across six in the fifth frame, three in the sixth, and added one in the seventh. Indian School scored once in the first inning of game one and three times in the third. In game two, it came up with one run in the fourth and two in the fifth.

The main challenge for the Horsemen in district will probably come from Robertson, which is 11-4 and has won 10 straight. There’s also non-district foes Albuquerque Sandia Prep and New Mexico Military institute at 10-4 each.

Not so for Santa Fe High. It did get away to a good start, won the Jim Pearce Tournament, but has tumbled to five-straight losses, is 7-10 overall and 1-4 in district play. In their last two starts, a doubleheader against visiting Albuquerque High, the Demons were trounced 13-2 in the opener and 26-6 in the closer. The Bulldogs, now 6-4 overall, scored in all but one inning.

In game one, they tallied 2 in the first inning, two in the second, one in the third, five in the fourth, one in the fifth, and two in the sixth of the run-rule contest. In game two, Albuquerque High had a 4-run initial start, added a dozen more in the second, seven more in the third, and three more in the fourth as the mercy-rule ended things after five frames.

The Demons could only respond with a run each in the first and third innings of game one, and with five in the second and one in the fourth of game two.

In a non-district contest 2A game at Gallup Rehoboth Christian, Pecos fell twice, 11-1 in the opening game and 12-2 in the closer. Also in 5-5A, Rio Grande made a visit to Capital and came away with a 16-3 final to drop the Jaguars to 7-8 overall and put Rio Grande at 8-4 in its third-straight victory.