Perfect ending for La Cueva
Bears dominate 6A; Aztec rules Class 5A
Some might say they saw this coming five years ago.
With six members of that 2012 Eastdale Little League team that won the Little League World Series, it was a safe bet that this year’s La Cueva Bears softball team might be pretty good.
But even the most optimistic of fans couldn’t with a straight face have predicted this — a national ranking and a 28-0 record capped by a 5-0 win Saturday at Lobo Field over defending champion Oñate for the Class 6A state championship. It was the school’s second title and first in 12 years.
“It was all about the mentality of the seniors,” said La Cueva coach Ron Romero, who won his first blue trophy after having a 2014 runner-up trophy at Hope Christian. “Those seniors came out and made a statement in practice all year long that we were going to be mentally ready for every game.”
With La Cueva senior pitcher Kendra Keahbone, the only one of five seniors on the roster who didn’t play on that Eastdale title team, and a stellar defensive effort, No. 3 Oñate (25-7) coach Fernie Valles knew the chances for his Knights would be few and far between in his last game as their coach.
“We knew against that team, we’d have to play errorless baseball and catch some breaks,” said Valles, who in six years at Oñate won a title and had two second-place finishes. “I can’t take anything away from that team (La Cueva). They’re great.”
In a tight 1-0 game, La Cueva
center fielder Andrea “Mo” Howard, a UNM signee, hit a two-run bomb well into the right-field bleachers that seemed to take the drama out of the afternoon.
“We have the heart. All of us,” Howard said of a Bears team that was eliminated from last year’s tournament by Oñate. “When we were down, or we knew it was a close game, or a big inning where we knew we had to fight, that’s what we did. It was like that all year. We fought like we had to in order to get ourselves to the level we’re at today to win a championship.”
The Bears defense was every bit as damaging as Howard’s bat. She made a laser throw from center field to home plate in the third that kept Oñate’s Stephany Duran at third base instead of trying to score, and second baseman Rachael Hathoot caught a Sabrina Martinez liner in the sixth and doubled up Duran at first to end the Knights’ last major threat.
“A 1-0 ballgame wasn’t enough in our minds, not for that team,” Romero said. “So Mo’s homer was huge, and then getting through the meat of their lineup (in the sixth with Duran and Martinez) was really the difference. Our whole mentality was to pitch around (Duran). We knew she could hurt us.”
The six members of the 2012 Eastdale team hit 1-through-6 in the La Cueva lineup, and each either scored or drove in one of the Bears’ five runs Saturday.
Class 5A
In 2013, Paige Adair, then an eighth-grader on the Aztec varsity, was told to keep her chin up after the Tigers finished as state runner-up. She’d get hers, they said.
Then again as a freshman in 2014 the team was runner-up.
The team didn’t make it to the championship series when she was a sophomore.
A year ago, Adair pitched well in all seven state tournament games for the Tigers before losing 1-0 to Centennial for another second-place trophy.
“I was tired of all the people who kept telling me I’d get them next year,” Adair said Saturday. “This was it. There was no more ‘get ’em next year.’ It had to be now.”
On Saturday, behind a 10-strikeout gem from Adair, the top-seeded Tigers (27-3) beat No. 2 Artesia 7-2 at Lobo Field for the school’s second state crown to go with five runner-up trophies, four since 2012.
“They walked off that field last year and told me ‘We’re winning it for you guys next year,’” said Aztec coach Ron Johnson, referring to himself and the rest of the Aztec coaching staff, which includes Adair’s father. “And they did it . ... All those secondplace finishes probably makes today feel a little sweeter.”
The game got off to an unusual start when, in the bottom of the first inning with two outs, Adair scored from first on a Kylie Brown double down the left-field line. There was a play at the plate, but the home plate umpire, apparently forgetting there was a runner on base, positioned herself at third base and was at least 50 feet from home plate when the throw reached Artesia catcher Melody Payne.
Bulldogs (23-8) players and fans immediately celebrated when the tag was applied, but after a conference with the other two umpires, the crew ruled the run scored.
“It was ridiculous,” Artesia coach Sandra Pulido said. “They’re a great team, but it’s too bad that in a game like this you have that happen and it kind of set the tone.”
Kali Crandall hit two homers for Artesia.