Silver, Cobre send Robertson home
RIO RANCHO — Las Vegas Robertson drew a tough task Thursday for the second day of the Class 4A State Girls Softball Tournament. That led to an even tougher assignment — which resulted in yet a harder way to be eliminated from the doubleelimination event at Rio Rancho High School.
The Lady Cardinals saw their season end with a 9-0 loss in the winner’s bracket semifinal to No. 1 Silver, followed by a gut-wrenching 5-4 loss to No. 3 Cobre in the loser’s bracket.
“We knew we had our work cut out for us, that was for sure,” said Robertson head coach Michael Quintana, after his team finished the season at 21-8. “It was going to be a real challenge to win three straight in one day after losing that first one.
“Still, we felt pretty good up 4-1 in that second game.” That “first one” was definitely daunting. The fourth-seeded Lady Cardinals had no answer for Lady Colts pitcher Kamryan Trujillo, who was dominant in the 9-0 win.
“She’s an outstanding pitcher,” Quintana said. “She’s been pitching like that all year.”
That sent the Lady Cardinals into the loser’s bracket, where they had to win three straight games to advance into Friday’s title game.
Robertson looked like it would take at least one step toward that goal, jumping out to a 4-1 lead on the Indians. The Lady Cardinals got RBI singles from Makayla Quintana, the coach’s daughter, and Ashlea Lujan in the top of the first and added two more runs in the top of the third on a two-run single by Deandra Gerdes with the bases loaded.
Robertson started a third-inning rally with two outs, with Kendra Duran drawing a walk followed by back to back singles.
Cobre pitcher Jadin Placencio was struggling at that point, but didn’t let it rattle her.
“Coach always says, ‘If you make a mistake in the field, come back and make it up with your stick,’ ” Placencio said. “I knew I didn’t pitch my best that third inning, so I had to do what he always says and make it up with my bat.”
It was sound advice from Indians head coach Randy Dominguez.
After Cobre’s Jessica Martinez cut the Robertson lead to 4-2 with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, Placencio followed with a two-out bomb over the center field fence.
In back-to-back swings, it was suddenly 4-all.
“That really gave me a lift,” Placencio said. “I felt pretty good on the mound after that.” And looked even better. Placencio shut out the Cardinals the rest of the way, retiring 14 of the final 16 batters she faced.
The Indians (21-8) got the eventual gamewinner with two outs in the bottom of the sixth when Illyana Silva doubled off the fence in right field to score Placencio, who had walked.
“It was a real tough way to lose, but I’m really proud of these kids for the season they had,” coach Quintana said of his Cardinals. “We battled all year, and next year we get to drop down to 3A and we have a lot of players back.”
Class 5A: Los Alamos saw its 5A season end the way it began — with a loss to Aztec. It was a better showing than the 16-0 drubbing the Lady Hilltoppers took, but the seventh-seeded Lady Tigers managed a 14-7 win to advance to the quarterfinals and a spot in the double-elimination bracket. Los Alamos tried to change the script, taking a 5-0 after two innings, but Aztec scored 14 unanswered runs before the Lady Hilltoppers scored twice in the top of the seventh.
The Lady Hilltoppers, who had won 11 straight games coming into the tournament, finished the season 18-9.