Lady Tigers softball gets swept by Sundevils
About 100 yards away from the baseball game between Taos and Española on Saturday (April 9), the Lady Tigers were battling the Lady Sundevils in a softball doubleheader. You could hear cheers and hollers from the bleachers on the baseball side.
The Lady Tigers mimicked the boys by also scoring four runs in the first inning on Saturday. A possible double-sweep against Española seemed to be within reach.
The fourth inning was when
the game started going downhill for the Lady Tigers. The Sundevils scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth to bring it within one, 4-3. Española starting pitcher Camille Hernandez was locked in an unshakeable groove. She gave up a double to Kendra Sandoval (Sandoval had two of the four hits Hernandez allowed). Other than that, the Lady Tigers could not generate much from their batting.
The errors piled on in the fifth inning for Taos; ground balls within reach would get past infielders, throws to first base to secure an out would fly past the first baseman. On one dramatic play, a grounder hit third base and popped high into the air landing in the outfield. With runners in scoring position, Sandoval had a desirable result from a pitch that forced a ground ball directly to her, with the third base runner stuck somewhere in between third and home.
Sandoval stared down the runner and then threw it to first base — the third base runner, who had stayed still, just ran to home plate when the baseball made it to first. Taos got the out, but conceded the run. From the dugout, Coach Roman Abreu said to Sandoval that she had to know the situation.
Hernandez drove in the run that gave Española the lead with an RBI single down the middle. A recurring problem for Taos was when they’d try extra-hard on throws of little consequence. For instance, a baserunner was advancing to the next base from a hit or an error and is near the bag by the time the infielder or outfielder decided to throw the ball. Then the ball, thrown with extra oomph, was either misread or sailed far from the intended target, resulting in a compounded error and another run scored.
The Lady Sundevils were having a blast playing softball — singing along to hip hop classics from the early Aughts, and contemporary rapper StaySolidRocky. On the diamond, they were leaping high into the air to congratulate one another after they got an out against Taos. They had plenty of banter amongst themselves and were constantly laughing out on the baseball field.
The Lady Tigers could not match their energy. Española closed the game strong with five runs in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.