Horsemen fall off razor’s edge
Team that lived on late-game heroics loses to Portales, which scored three runs in the seventh inning for 4-3 win
ALBUQUERQUE — The team that lived on the edge for so long finally met a dramatic ending it couldn’t recover from.
Carrying a two-run lead into the final inning, the St. Michael’s baseball team lost on a walk-off single in a 4-3 setback to Portales in Friday’s Class 4A state semifinals at Santa Ana Star Field at The University of New Mexico.
It sends the second-seeded Rams (23-7) into Saturday’s championship game at Isotopes Park while leaving the Horsemen (19-12) to pick up the pieces from a heartbreaking loss that ended their season.
“You never want to see it end like this, not after what we’ve gone through,” said St. Michael’s senior Jason Romero, one of four seniors on a roster that returns the core of its lineup and pitching rotation next year.
Emotions were raw after the game. Several players openly wept while first-year head coach Augustin Ruiz addressed the team just a few feet from the first base dugout. A year after coaching Pecos to the Class 3A state finals, Ruiz was seeking to become just the second coach in state history to lead two different teams to the finals in consecutive years.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Ruiz said. “They took on a new coaching staff and they adapted, they overcame and they performed, you know? We got this far with what was a great group of guys. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Ruiz appeared to be headed to another finals appearance until the final five minutes of what was the third straight game
for St. Michael’s to end on the last at-bat. The Horsemen led 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh and Romero looking stronger than ever on the mound.
The floppy haired senior carried a shutout into the fifth and had retired six straight batters when he took the hill for the seventh. He needed just five pitches to retire the side in the sixth and had thrown only 75 through the first six frames.
The trouble started immediately as the Rams got a leadoff single from Darion Ontiveros and a double into center by Emilio Lovato. It was Lovato who had ruined Romero’s shutout bid two innings before with an inside-the-park home run to lead off the fifth.
With two runners in scoring position, Romero gave up a sharp single to center by Alex Galvan to tie things up.
Portales catcher Joel Legarda attempted to sacrifice the runner to second, but his bunt to third was scooped up by St. Michael’s freshman Eric Romero and thrown into right field while attempting to nab the lead runner on the force.
That left runners at second and third with no one out. Portales pitcher Joe Ortega then ended it with with a fly ball that landed near the left field line beyond the reach of Horsemen outfielder Aiden Gantt. It touched off a wild celebration for Portales in the infield while leaving the Horsemen dazed about what had just happened.
Looking in the direction of his younger brother, Eric, Jason Romero said his senior season is an experience he’ll never forget.
“I’m sure some guys are beating themselves up over all this, but the thing to do here is keep our heads up and remember the year we just had,” he said. “I’ve been with this team for a long time, and with the new coaches coming in, we had a chance to change some things and see what we could do. It was fun. I’m going to really miss it.”
Romero pitched out of trouble in three of the first four innings as Portales stranded at least two runners in each of those frames.
The St. Michael’s lineup was impressively consistent once again. All nine batters in the order had at least one hit.
The Horsemen broke the ice with two runs in the top of the second when Jonah Baca walked and eventually scored on a throwing error by Portales starting pitcher Josiah Lucero. Derek Roybal singled and scored moments later on an RBI hit from Curtis Rogers.
It remained 2-0 until the fifth when Sean Latham singled and then scored on a triple to the rightfield wall by Baca. Latham was the only Horsemen with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a run scored after pitching the team to a victory in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
He and Baca represent a talented group of players coming back next season, one that should make St. Michael’s one of the top contenders once again.
“The future here is bright and the offseason starts now with legion ball and things like that,” Ruiz said, adding that his first year with his new program was everything he thought it would be.
“You know,” he said, “the guys bought into what we were doing, and that’s all I can ask. We came in and changed some things and credit the seniors — they led the way by accepting the new way of doing things. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”