Crims baseball starts spring on hot streak, Raiders bounce back

With spring sports kicking off this week, perhaps no team has gotten off to a better start than Yuma High baseball, going a perfect 3-0 across its first trio of games to open the 2023 season.

Better yet, the Crims have won all three of their games with electric offense, scoring 11 runs in each of their three wins.

Friday’s victory was perhaps the best of the three, bouncing back from a 14-1 loss to Flowing Wells High School last year for an 11-4 redemption win.

Junior lefty Edgar Castro took the hill for the Criminals, tossing five innings, allowing just four runs (three earned) on six hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

“He just went out there and competed,” Yuma head coach Nick Johnson said of Castro. “Most of the hits he gave up were infield singles and they just found the right holes... He kept them off balance which was awesome.”

In the box, the Criminals continued to carry over their success from two 11run wins on Thursday night, finding production up and down the order, with five players recording hits. Senior infielder Justin Bouts, hot off 2-for-5 and 2-for-3 performances on Thursday, went 2-for-4 with three RBIS.

The real standout was junior catcher Damian Cabrera, who went 4-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

Yuma High gets Ironwood Ridge in the final game of their opening tournament tomorrow.

“I’m just so happy with where everyone is at right now,” Johnson said. “The guys are hungry and they’re all just so into it. The lineup up and down the order is doing so well, the pitching too. Even the guys in the dugout are very into it and that’s a great sign for us early.

SOFTBALL

Raiders get first W

on the season

that included a photo of him and two recruits. On that date, Ruiz posted a photo of himself with the Cavinder twins after a dinner at his home.

“These girls decided where to go, no one else did it for them,” Ruiz tweeted Friday.

The Cavinders, who have an enormous social media following and several NIL deals, signed their letter of intent about a week after the dinner. They are not subject to any sanctions. Both are in their first season with the Hurricanes after transferring from Fresno State.

“Although the parties asserted that a disassociation penalty would be inappropriate based on an impermissible meal and an impermissible contact, today’s new Nil-related environment represents a new day,” the NCAA said.

Meier said Friday in a statement distributed by the university that she has led programs “with integrity” and has been “a collaborative partner with the NCAA.”

“Collegiate athletics is in transformation, and any inadvertent mistake I made was prior to a full understanding of implemented

guardrails and the clarification issued by the NCAA in May,” Meier said.

The NCAA said it started an investigation in May, and interviewed Ruiz in June. But the NCAA cannot order Miami to disassociate itself from Ruiz based on a meeting that occurred before rules were changed last year.

“The (committee on infractions) will strongly

consider disassociation penalties in future cases involving Nil-adjacent conduct,” the NCAA said.

Miami agreed to various other minor sanctions, such as a small fine – $5,000, plus 1% of the women’s basketball budget, which the school does not release as a private institution – and a slight reduction in what’s allowed in recruiting.