Lady Tigers wrap season with sweep of Lady Pintos
The Taos Lady Tigers hosted the Moriarty Lady Pintos for a doubleheader on Saturday (April 30), winning both games.
Through three innings in the first matchup, the score was closely mirroring the baseball game in the adjacent field, with the exception that Taos was down 2-1.
The Lady Tigers climbed out in front when they scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the lead vanished quickly. Kendra Sandoval had retired one batter and was down in the count three balls to one strike against a Lady Pinto, when a ball was hit to center field. Centerfielder Madelynn Quintana had a tough time finding the ball in the high noon sun. The ball dropped outside of her reach for a double. Sandoval beamed the next batter in her ankle. The Lady Pinto hobbled her way to first base trying to shake off the pain. Freshman Sienna Rios, who’s batting a .614 for the season, crushed a double deep into center field, and this time, there was nothing Quintana could have done about the fly ball. A ground ball back to Sandoval ended the inning, but the Lady Pintos had scored three runs and taken back the lead.
Arianna Gutierrez singlehandedly evened the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when she smashed the ball past the first baseman and deep into the right field corner. When she reached second base her legs were churning, her arms were pumping — she kept going, and when she reached third base there was nothing indicating that she had any intentions of settling for a triple; she was heading home and scored on an inside-the-park home run.
In the seventh inning, Sandoval dinked a fly ball just over the top of
the first baseman, and she outran the throw to first. She stole second base and was in scoring position. Quintana was at-bat and facing a full count with two outs. She struck out, and the Lady Tigers were headed to extra innings.
The Lady Pintos scored first in extra innings off a double that brought in the runner on second to home. In extra-inning rules, the inning starts off with a runner on second. The Lady Tigers would end up with the last laugh as they won the game with a walk-off error
that brought in two runs to win the closely contested game, 8-7.
While the first game was a back and forth affair, the second game was a blowout. The Lady Tigers had a 2-0 lead to start the second inning. Sandoval got into trouble as she had the bases loaded but she escaped with a strikeout.
The Lady Pintos missed their opportunity for a competitive game. The Lady Tigers drove in seven runs in the bottom of the second. Celina Shropshire drove in two runs with a fly ball that fell in
between the outstretched gloves of two Moriarty players in right field. Quintana drove in another two runs with a ground rule double that would have been a triple for Quintana had it stayed within bounds. The Moriarty coach had seen enough — it was time to make a change at the mound, and so she brought in Ainsley Milligan to pitch.
Milligan gave up another run on a sacrifice fly. When the inning was over, Taos was up 7-0. The play