Little league players display passion, promise at the plate
Time is an asterisk, same as it ever was, and the Taos Little League Opening Day Ceremony held on Sunday (May 15) at Kit Carson Park was an exhibition of intergenerational athletes.
There’s the little leaguers, who possess the enthusiasm for the game but aren’t quite physically coordinated enough yet to throw accurate pitches. Some of them have the poise and desire, demonstrated in the way they carried themselves in the Pitch, Hit & Run competition, to become reliable players for a high school one day — or maybe beyond.
There’s the Taos Tigers seniors — Dominic Chacon, Jalen Montano and Alyssa Cisneros — who threw the ceremonial first pitches of the game. Those senior Tigers themselves were a product of the Taos Little League system, getting in those reps and learning valuable skills that would translate into 4A high school baseball and 4A high school softball.
There’s the parents of the little leaguers, some of them former Taos Tigers, passing on their athletic genes down the family tree and supporting their young athletes along their own journey. Then you’ve got members of the Taos Men’s Adult Baseball League, men that might have played baseball competitively in their youth and have rediscovered the love of the
game past the age of 50. These ball players did the hard work of setting the stage, directing traffic, giving instruction, keeping score and catching any fly balls sent into the outfield.
There were 44 kids that participated in the competition, 14 girls and 30 boys. When they had all finished
one of the three drills, it was the MABL players who cleaned up the outfield, some of them wearing throwback Taos Blizzard jerseys, in honor of the short-lived professional baseball team of the Pecos League.
For the opening day ceremony, little leaguers, coaches and family members lined up along the edge of the infield diamond, from third base to first base. There were also fans lined up along the fences to the left and to the right. Past the home run fence, firefighters watched from afar in the back of a fire truck, as a giant star-spangled banner waved in the air, suspended from an aerial ladder.
After the ceremonial pitches were thrown, the little leaguers ran the bases en masse. One of the younger players wearing a yankee jersey missed home plate after rounding third. It was now time to commence the competition segment of the day.
According to the league pamphlet, “The Pitch, Hit & Run property is for boys and girls 7-14 years old and consists of a series of movements that are important in baseball and softball.” The groups were divided into age groups: 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14. “Athletes will be tested and their measurements will be recorded,” the pamphlet also states. “Based on their scores, they will advance from a local event to a Team Championship
and then to the National Finals.”
First up was the batting challenge, where the kids each got five tries to hit the ball off an adjustable tee, and to hit as many balls as far as possible. The field was divided into zones based on distance from the plate. The deeper a ball landed in the field resulted in a higher score: A foul ball generates zero points, a ball hit 110 feet is worth 50 points. There were no home runs hit.
The tee received a ton of damage from the energetic batters who hit well underneath the ball. On the opposite end of the spectrum a lot of the competitors hit over the top, resulting in short ground balls.
A short yankee stepped up to bat, and from the bleachers, a parent warned the outfield, “don’t underestimate his size.” Sure enough, he was out there with bad intentions, hitting the ball consistently into the outfield.
When Lilly Trujillo stepped up to bat, the former Taos Blizzards players had to remain on high alert. Her first at-bat resulted in a ball hit powerfully into the outfield. She hit a few strong softballs but the awkwardness of hitting a ball off a tee proved difficult.
In the pitching contest, Elias Martinez, Jordan Jassmann and Trujillo received the highest scores, 200 out of a possible 500 points. Isabella Lucero had the fastest time in the 90-foot sprint with a time of 4.6 seconds. The next fastest times belonged to Alexis Rosales and Luis Avilez with a time of 4.8 seconds.
Jesus Ramirez Jr. won the batting title with a score of 400. Fabian Gurule came in a close second with 390 points.
Overall the event was a success, as many people showed up. Parking spots were full from the Taos Center for the Arts parking lot and up all the way to the farthest corner of the Kit Carson parking lot.