St. Michael’s hit parade produced nine first inning runs

Before Saturday’s anticipated baseball doubleheader against visiting Robertson in a clash of District 2-3A rivals, head coach Augustin Ruiz said he has seen his St. Micael’s teams sometimes get too worked up at the idea of facing the Cardinals, but those times appear to finally be changing.

“Yes,” he said, “it’s a different breed with these guys. There’s not the dread every time they see the name “Robertson” on the schedule, where in the past it kind of did. We had guys waiting for the other shoe to drop, kind of.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly a shoe that dropped, it was the Horsemen in the opening game at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex continuing their usual hit parade by sending in 9 runs in the last of the first inning off Robertson starter Quik Cordova. They added two more in the fourth, and it was plenty for St. Michael’s senior right-hander Owen Gruda as he worked only the five innings before the 10 run-rule was applied in the 11-0 masterpiece.

He gave up only two hits and struck out seven. The top two hitters in the Cardinals’ batting order were a combined 0-5 with five strikeouts as he lowered his season earned run average to 2.18 and upped his record to 6-0 in seven appearances. He was also helped by a dozen hits from his own lineup, with senior Derek Martinez and Rayes Baros coming up with two each.

Gruda, one of the leaders of Ruiz’ team, suggested recently that the Horsemen should be considered the team to beat and not Robertson. Well, he, his offense and defense did their part to improve to 12-6 overall and 4-1 in district.

The booming bat for St. Michael’s came from senior catcher Ceejay Saiz, who had a 5-for-6 day, with his towering home run in game one clearing the centerfield fence and was estimated at around 400 feet. In game two, he blasted a two-base hit that landed deep in right-center field. He, Gruda, Elijah Sisneros and Isaac Ruiz are the team captains.

The second game went to the Cardinals, 8-5, and who will play host to St. Michael’s in a single game on April 26. They are now 13-4-1overall and 3-1 in district, with both teams hoping for the top two spots at the state tournament.

Trying for a split, Robertson countered with its best hurler, Adrian Rivera, who went the route striking out 10. The curve-baller was touched for a pair of first inning runs and his side responded with two of its own in the top of the second. In the fourth it came away with four runs and added two in the seventh to offset the three tallied by the Horsemen in the bottom of the frame.

Rivera, who was on the hill at state last year when St. Michael’s was eliminated, whiffed 10 and kept the home team scoreless from the second to the sixth innings, as did Gruda in the shortened game one.

Yes, it amounted to a split, for the Horsemen hadn’t swept a doubleheader over the Cards since 2018, but at least Ruiz, one of the better coaches around, has gotten his rejuvenated team thinking more about it.

Cordova started the opening game so, as the starting catcher, he could be behind the plate for Rivera in the closer.

“Actually,” said Ruiz, “I don’t really concern myself with pitching matchups at the pitching level. These are high school kids.”

What were Saiz’ words?

“I’d say it’s just the usual St. Michael’s-Robertson stuff. It’s a big rivalry,” he said, and no matter what’s going on, it’s usually like this.”

The Santa Fe High baseball team continued to fade in dropping Saturday’s doubleheader at District 5-5A opponent Los Lunas to extend its losing streak to seven games.

The opener was close, with Los Lunas winning 8-7 on 10 hits and with a trio of errors. The Demons scored first with two runs in the first, Los Lunas answered with one in the second, and after Santa Fe High came up with five runs in the third, back came the Tigers with one in the fifth, four in the sixth, and the winning run in the eighth. The Demons came up with nine hits and errored four times.

In the closer, it was Los Lunas coming up with three runs in the first and a big seven in the fifth, with the visitors tallying once in the second and twice in the seventh. It dropped the Demons, who were playing well when they won the annual Jim Pearce Memorial Invitational, fell to 7-12, and had seven hits to with one miscue, while the Tigers (12-6) came up with eight safeties and committed one error. In district play, Santa Fe High dropped to 0-4 and Los Lunas won its fourth-straight and is 4-0 in district.

At Capital in 5-5A, the Jaguars lost both ends of a doubleheader to Albuquerque High, 14-3 and 12-3, to fall to 7-11 overall and 0-4 in district at they lost their fourth in a row. The Bulldogs won its fourth straight and improved to 6-10 overall.

In the opener, Albuquerque came up with seven runs in the initial inning, one in the third, five in the fourth in the run-rule finish. Capital tallied twice in the third and once in the fifth. In the closer that went seven frames, the Bulldogs scored seven times in the first and added five in the fourth, while the Jags turned in a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth.