Tigers baseball, softball teams off to rough start
Lose Tuesday matchups against St. Michael’s
The Taos Tigers baseball and softball seasons are off to a bit of a rough start this spring, with the boys losing their last three games after winning their nonconference season opener, and the ladies recording back-to-back losses in their first two matchups in Santa Fe this week.
Still, both teams have shown a propensity for slugging in their first games and putting up runs.
The Taos Tigers were set to play an opening home game Tuesday afternoon (March 15), but conceded to instead play at St. Micheal’s due to their own field not being up to code.
Taos got off to a good start, scoring two runs in the first inning. They held a lead until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Horsemen took a 4-3 lead. St. Michael’s would go on to win 5-4.
Senior pitcher Owen Gruda gets his first win of the season for the Horsemen.
The Lady Tigers were also in St. Michael’s for a doubleheader against the Lady Horsemen in two high-scoring games. The Tigers lost the first game 6-8. In the second game, the Lady Tigers scored 10 runs, but the Lady Horsemen scored 13 to take both games at home.
Last week, on March 12, the boys came out of the gates swinging against the Rangeview Raiders. In the first inning, they jumped out a 4-1 lead. The Tigers were shut out in the second and third innings, while the Raiders took back the lead: 6-4. The Raiders increased their lead to five in the top of the fourth: 9-4. Taos fought back in the bottom of the fourth, but couldn’t force extra innings. Taos lost 7-9.
On March 11 against Aztec, the 16th-ranked team in the state, the Tigers were able to put up nine runs. Aztec won 11-9. Most of Aztec’s runs came in an explosive second inning, where they scored eight out of their 11 runs.
The boys eked out a win in their first game against Raton in a non-conference game on March 9, with a final score of 6-5. The Tigers were down 2-5 after the first five innings, but in the sixth inning, they scored three runs to the game. In the top of the ninth inning, they scored their sixth run, and were able to close it out in the bottom of the ninth.
While neither team from Taos has shown an ability to dominate on the field as of yet, it’s still early in the season, and talent on both teams may make for competitive spring seasons moving forward.