Rams capture championships in two tourneys
Baseball team routs La Cueva; softball team defeats Carlsbad
RIO RANCHO — A day later, there was, perhaps predictably, some La Cueva dropoff.
Second-ranked Rio Rancho, for the first time in five years, won its own baseball tournament, clipping the third-ranked Bears 7-1 in the final of the Sal Puentes event on Saturday afternoon.
But while a five-year drought often conflicts with the tried-and-true concept of home cooking in a tournament such as this, Rio Rancho coach Ron Murphy took a more pragmatic approach.
“When you have a tournament with a lot of great teams,” Murphy said, “you don’t automatically get the host into the championship.”
Murphy has always wanted the Puentes field to be elite, to test, to stretch. This year’s field, with the top three-ranked teams in Class 5A — Cleveland, Rio Rancho, La Cueva — was pristine.
But even with two powerhouses in the final, the title game proved largely anticlimactic.
La Cueva (11-2), coming off that mind-boggling 18-8, six-inning semifinal victory on Friday night against No. 1-ranked Cleveland, couldn’t seem to summon the same kind of pizzazz Saturday against the Rams (15-2).
Assign Rio Rancho junior righty Alec Stanfield (2-1) credit for much of that. The New Mexico State commit scattered six hits in six-plus innings.
“He could throw his breaking stuff in the zone, and that was huge for us,” Rio Rancho catcher Clayton Kempski said. “He had command of everything today.”
Stanfield eventually gave way to reliever Noah Brewer in the seventh, when La Cueva scored its only run.
“I knew they’d be a good hitting team, so I just had to focus on staying in the zone,” said Stanfield. “And letting my defense help me out.”
The defense held up its end, for sure. Rio Rancho right fielder Kevin Pietzrak threw out La Cueva’s Shane Zottnick at the plate in the first inning with a perfect throw. Also, shortstop Jacob Braunschweiger made a couple of excellent short-hop picks on ground balls.
“We had some really good at-bats early, and hit some balls really hard, but we just couldn’t find the hole,” Bears coach Gerard Pineda said. “He (Stanfield) competed in the zone. If we scratch home a couple of runs early, I think it’s a different game.”
Rio Rancho put up six runs — and had five of its seven hits for the game — in the third inning against La Cueva starter Cody Davis and reliever Isaac Cordova.
Pietzrak got it started with an RBI single. Later, Kempski walked with the bases loaded, Brewer delivered an RBI single, and Colt Uphold scored two with a single to center. Josh Clark finished the rally with a sacrifice fly.
Kempski’s RBI double in the fourth upped the lead to 7-0.
Stanfield didn’t really need all that support, but after Rio Rancho watched La Cueva scored 15 times in the sixth inning Friday against Cleveland, all the Rams were at least partially on edge, even with a large cushion.
“We knew they weren’t gonna give up,” Stanfield said. “We did not take them lightly.”
Rio Rancho opens District 1-5A play Tuesday against Atrisco Heritage.
“We feel great as a team,” Stanfield said. “We have great team chemistry, and we’re a family. And with that, the talent kicks in.”
Murphy on Saturday won his 553rd career game, putting him in second place alone on the all-time coaching wins list in New Mexico. He broke a tie with Jim Johns; John Gutierrez (Bloomfield, Navajo Prep) leads at 582.
La Cueva faces a final test on Tuesday, hosting Rio Grande, before district play begins in 2-5A.
“Our best baseball is going to be in front of us,” Pineda said. He won’t have senior second baseman Ben Schoneman on Tuesday, however, after Schoneman was ejected from Saturday’s game.
Softball
At Eagle Ridge Middle School in Rio Rancho, the Rams came from behind twice to defeat Carlsbad 9-8 in the championship game Saturday afternoon of the Kristin Griego Memorial Tournament.
The second of two Kendra Levesque home runs, in the bottom of the seventh inning, allowed the Rams to walk off the Cavegirls.
Savana Martinez and Briana Martinez also homered in the victory for Rio Rancho (15-1).
Carlsbad had scored three times in the top of the seventh for an 8-6 lead. The Cavegirls also led 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth before Rio Rancho scored four times to lead 6-5.