Bright and early
With basketball heading toward its finale, most baseball players head to diamond for openers
Baseball games before the basketball season is over. Augustin Ruiz is unaccustomed to this. For 12 years, Ruiz waited until the state basketball tournament ended before he could conceive of playing a baseball game as the head coach at Pecos. When he took over at St. Michael’s in July, Ruiz’s baseball world turned upside down.
He actually had plenty of players — 18, to be exact — who signed up to play in the fall league in Albuquerque. Another 25 players went through the grind of offseason training and the weightlifting program in the winter.
With the season opener less than 24 hours away on Wednesday afternoon, more than 30 Horsemen practiced in preparation for Thursday’s 8 a.m. opener against Albuquerque St. Pius X in the opening round of the St. Pius Invitational.
That group is the bulk of the St. Michael’s varsity and junior varsity program, with only a handful of players unavailable because they are still playing basketball this weekend in the opening round of the Class 4A State Tournament. It’s a far cry from his time at Pecos, in which at least half of his team played roundball into the first or second week of March. As for offseason participants, he was happy with at least half a dozen in the good times.
“I talked to the guys one day, and I said that’s what’s been exciting for me,” Ruiz said of the overall participation. “To have 18, 20 guys in the fall and 25 guys in offseason is exciting because you have the numbers to work with. In Pecos, I have five, six guys showing up for offseason. They were the dedicated ones and the others were in basketball, but we made it work.”
Despite those struggles, Ruiz guided Pecos to two state semifinals as well as a runner-up finish in his final season in 2016. He takes over a St. Michael’s program that had its second losing season in the past seven years and failed to get out of the first round of the state tournament, its worst performance since failing to reach the state tournament in 2005. Ruiz finds a team looking for direction.
“They’ve never given themselves expectations,” Ruiz said. “It was more like, ‘Let’s come out and see what happens.’ Now, it’s, ‘No, I came here to win.’ That’s my attitude. I came here to win. That’s why I made that decision [to come to St. Michael’s]. That’s how I was in Pecos.”
Ruiz also finds a quality that many of his Panthers teams had — pitching depth. Ruiz foresees using a threeman rotation early in the season, led by juniors Sean Latham and Jude Mondragon. With the New Mexico Activities Association mandating and monitoring pitch counts this year, teams will need depth on the hill, especially when the state tournament arrives.
Ruiz said the advantage with the St. Michael’s program is that he can develop more pitchers as early as in middle school and have the depth to handle the rigors of the state tournament. Even without that luxury at Pecos, Ruiz always had plenty of pitchers on hand.
“We’re fortunate to have a junior high and a JV [team], because you really have to develop those pitchers when they’re young,” Ruiz said. “And continue to develop them.”
Santa Fe High eyes state tourney bid
For the past two years, Santa Fe High relied on youth to rebuild the program, but the Demons want to see progress. And that means earning a spot in the 6A tournament. Anthony Martinez, the fifth-year Santa Fe High head coach, believes this team can accomplish that goal — and maybe more.
“Call me crazy, but I think we got a shot at winning district this year,” Martinez said. “We have to play good, still. … It’s not going to be
easy, but I believe we are on that level.”
To do that, though, the Demons have to come out of their offensive shell. They managed just 3.4 runs per game last season, although some of that can be attributed to playing in the toughest district in the state (1-6A) that had three of its teams reach the semifinals last year. Now in 2-6A, Martinez doesn’t expect the going to be any easier, with Albuquerque schools La Cueva, Eldorado and Sandia in the mix.
Santa Fe High collected 15 hits in a 13-2 win over Capital on Feb. 25, and had eight extra base hits in the mix. Junior Izaiah Apodaca led the way with a double and a home run while also allowing a run on four hits over three innings against the Jaguars.
Pitching depth is something Martinez feels he has in Apodaca, sophomore Manny Martinez and junior Jacob Romero. The rise in talent means the Demons have more wiggle room than in the past.”
“We can make a few errors here and there and we’re still going to be in it,” Martinez said. “Our margin for error has increased a little bit, because we have some guys who can play on any team in the state.”
McCurdy doesn’t change expectations in 3A
For the past two years, the McCurdy Bobcats came close to bringing home a blue trophy, losing to Melrose in the 1A/2A championship game in 2015 and 2016.
Now a member of 3A, the Bobcats bring a young, but experienced team to try and get over the hump in a higher class. A group of seven sophomores will be called upon to take on more leadership on the team — Kemmer Croff, Ubaldo Barela and A.J. Vallo in particular.
“Kemmer is one of my utility players and he pitches and can play any role,” McCurdy head coach Robert DeVargas said. “He can do a little bit of everything on the team now. The same with Ubaldo. he’s a very quiet guy, but just he comes over and works and performs.”
Even though McCurdy now has the likes of Pecos, Raton and a rising Santa Fe Prep to contend with in District 2/3-3A, DeVargas feels not much has changed for his program.
“I said this on the first day of practice, that we want to win district and we want to win that state title,” DeVargas said. “We just don’t want to play just to play. We set our goals pretty high.”