Estancia baseball team sweeps Peñasco in doubleheader
The Estancia Bears beat the Peñasco Panthers in a doubleheader on Saturday (March 26) over a marathon six hours of play.
The two teams played from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and their fans endured an afternoon devoid of clouds with around 70-degree heat. Some came prepared with umbrellas to keep themselves cool.
In the first game, the Bears thrashed the Panthers, 14-2. The Bears’ starting pitcher controlled the game with a sizzling fastball that kept the Peñasco bats at bay, with the exception of centerfielder Juan Arellano. Arellano connected for two hits on his three at-bats. One of those swings resulted in the ball clearing the fences for a home run. This demonstration of power and eye-coordination set the tone later on in the second game when Estancia repeatedly intentionally walked Arellano with runners on base.
At 12:30 p.m., with the sun directly overhead, the second game of the doubleheader commenced. In the top of the first inning, the Bears were on track to repeat a similar performance from the morning game when the Panthers starting pitcher, Adam Archuleta, gave up three runs. The damage mostly came from infielding errors, a stolen base and a wild pitch. Estancia’s bats had yet to come into play.
Peñasco had a chance to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning. The bases were loaded after multiple walks and an infield error. Junior Josh Lucero was one of those players that got on base. As a batter, he’s able to see the ball well and get either walks or a hit. On the diamond, though, he lacks speed, and in this situation it was crucial since he was the lead runner. The Panthers could not advance him from third with ground balls or with a sacrifice fly.
Estancia’s second baseman, Nathaniel Montoya, posed problems for Peñasco with both his bat and his speed. He batted in three doubles. Two were well-hit balls into the gaps of the outfield. One was a tricky fly ball the left fielder misread in the sun; by the time he saw it, it dropped and Montoya was already at second base. One of the coaches joked he’s too fast to get a good picture of him rounding the bases.
The Panthers committed a strategic error with runners on first and third base, and less than two outs. If the runner from first goes
for the steal, the catcher should either let him take it or pass it to the pitcher to maybe make a play at second or home, depending on the situation.
Instead, the catcher threw to second, the runner was declared safe, and the runner from third scored.
Through three innings, the only positive thing for Peñasco was a stellar defensive play, where third
baseman Donivan Aguilar got a ground ball off the bounce, tagged the runner heading to third and then threw it to first for the double play.
Archuleta’s off-speed pitches were proving ineffective against the Estancia Batters. The Bears had a 10-0 lead before a pitching change was made for Peñasco.
Lucian Badash-Dyer came into the ball game and things started to turn around for the Panthers.
The efforts of freshman Lyrik Montoya also gave the Panthers new life. First, he belted a linedrive double. He then successfully stole third base. Diego Ortiz hit a fly ball that was just outside of the reach of the second baseman, driving in the run. Aguilar made full contact with the ball and drove it deep into left field for an RBI double.
Estancia intentionally walked Arellano and the tactic paid dividends for the Bears. The Panthers scored no more runs in the inning.
The game was now 12-3, in favor of Estancia — just within range of a mercy rule if the Bears extend the lead to 10 after the fifth inning.
When the game lacked competitive gravitas, an odd controversy occurred with regards to the batting lineup of Estancia. The Peñasco coaching staff noticed an irregularity in the batting order when the Bears substituted a pinch hitter. On the pinch hitter’s second at-bat, he was out of order in
regards to the official Estancia batting lineup. Panthers head coach called it out to the umpire, who sided with Peñasco and declared the out-of-turn batter out.
Estancia did nothing to remedy the situation when the same pinch hitter came to bat the third time around. Chacon took notice and called them out again for the same infraction. This drew the ire of Estancia’s assistant coaches and their fanbase.
The Bears accused Peñasco of coursing the game, manipulating the scoreboard with underhanded tricks. Roy Archibeque and Chacon pleaded their case with the umpire for an extended period of time. The Panthers that were playing infield collectively sat on the nearest base awaiting a final verdict.
One of the assistant coaches for Estancia argued that the lineup order had to change due to the number of batters being off due to a substitution, but that doesn’t explain why the batting order would be altered.
The umpires sided with Peñasco once again, resulting in two outs to end the inning. In a postgame interview, they clarified the situation. “They just were out of order twice. We worked with the scorekeeper and everybody got it straight .... There was a designated hitter. They took off the DH and moved him down to the bottom.”
“It’s so easy to solve. You say, ‘Who is the proper batter, right? Who is the proper batter?’ But then you gotta realize, was there a pitch made to the next batter? Can’t do nothing about it…. Wait till you see an intentionally dropped ball on an infield fly. That confuses everybody.”
The lineup controversy helped
spark a late-game comeback for the Panthers. Peñasco scored six runs against pitchers Camden Smith and Miguel Colmeneco to avoid the mercy rule. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Panthers were down 16-9, needing
another burst of runs to tie or win the game.
Estancia’s Eladio Bernal closed out the inning with an effective 12 pitches, most of them being strikes, to complete the double header sweep of the Panthers.