Cleveland softball ace proved a point in dominant season
What a rival school in West Texas gains, Angel Castillo said, is the state of New Mexico’s loss.
“I feel like they stole one from UNM and New Mexico State,” Cleveland High’s softball coach said.
No one could begrudge Castillo for leaning into this point of view, having watched his senior pitcher, Aalijah Alarcon, shoulder a massive load for the Storm en route to winning the Class 5A state championship last month.
“I started it my freshman year and I wanted to end it my senior year,” Alarcon, 17, said. “I have to do it for the girls, that’s all I could think of at the time.”
There is an additional reward for Alarcon: the Storm righthander is the Journal’s metro Female Athlete of the Year for the shortened 2021 spring prep sports calendar.
An argument could be advanced that no female athlete in the metro area had more influence or impact in a major team sport’s championship season than Alarcon, who has signed to play for UTEP’s Miners.
Her season stat line shouts at a
high volume: 19-2, 1.14 ERA, 152 strikeouts in 122⅔ innings. She performed like a closer in the postseason.
“I’m not just a kid from New Mexico who can just throw the ball,” she said.
Alarcon tossed shutouts in each of Cleveland’s three playoff victories: a perfect game in the quarterfinals against La Cueva, a six-hitter in a 1-0 semifinal win over some friends and former youth teammates at Oñate, and then another sixhitter in Cleveland’s 3-0 state final victory over Carlsbad.
And to hear Alarcon tell it, she was running on fumes and — with large pitch counts in the quarterfinals and semifinals behind her — was dealing with a sore arm by the end of the final against the Cavegirls.
“I was really exhausted,” she said. “In the sixth inning (of the championship game), I had a breakdown and started crying in the dugout. My body was finally shutting down on me.”
Even before reaching the playoffs, the 5-foot-10 Alarcon had pitched the Storm to a title in the state’s toughest district, 1-5A. Three of the top six seeds in the 5A tournament came from that league.
“It was one of those things, the girls, the rest of the team, fed off of her energy and her belief,” Castillo said.
And with some time to reflect, even Alarcon admitted it was an impressive valedictory to her career.
“I actually went back and watched all three games when I was in Colorado (for a club tournament),” she said, smiling. “I was, like, dang, I did really good.”
Even Cleveland’s offense had its troubles touching up Alarcon. Castillo told a story of one of his Storm batters, shortstop Ashley Archuleta, who was in the box against Alarcon one afternoon when Alarcon’s teammates were granted a request and got a shot at their star pitcher themselves.
It might reassure other teams to know that Cleveland’s sticks struggled like most everyone else.
“The girls didn’t have a whole lot of success,” Castillo said, “but it was fun watching them.”
In one of those sessions, Alarcon plunked Archuleta — a signee with the University of New Mexico — in the shoulder, sidelining the shortstop for a couple of weeks.
“She took one off the shoulder, and Ashley came in. She said, ‘Coach, I’ve played a lot of club ball, and I’ve been hit a bunch, and nothing has ever hurt like that.’” Castillo said with a laugh.
Archuleta chuckled at this story, too, but also offered a deep appreciation for what Alarcon meant to the Storm.
“She just has it all,” Archuleta said. “She has everything a hitter would not want to face.”
The base elements in play here are not complex.
Alarcon’s repertoire of four pitches — fastball, curve, riser and change-up — work in unison, and her spin rate, she said, vastly improved over the second half of the season. It was her change-up, she said, that “was great this season, I thought.”
There was one blip: losing both ends of a doubleheader to Piedra Vista. But that proved to be galvanizing for Alarcon, Castillo said, as a few days off after those two games forced her to regroup and refocus.
That day was important. So was Cleveland’s middle state tournament game, against Oñate. Alarcon is from Las Cruces and moved to Rio Rancho before her freshman season. She said there was some noise on social media leading up to that matchup from former teammates.
“It was an emotional game for me,” she said. “I really wanted to prove a point.”
What point?
“That I’m a great pitcher,” she said, adding, “I moved up here, and it was for the best. I’ve come a long way. I’ve grown as a person, as a softball player, and I really wanted to prove that point.”
On a larger scale, she said, Alarcon felt “underestimated” during her career at Cleveland, where she was the No. 1 starter the last three years.
This finish, she said, was perfect.
“I wanted to come out and win state,” she said, “and be (on the first team) to do it in Cleveland history.”
I WAS REALLY EXHAUSTED. IN THE SIXTH INNING (OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME), I HAD A BREAKDOWN AND STARTED CRYING IN THE DUGOUT. MY BODY WAS FINALLY SHUTTING DOWN ON ME.
AALIJAH ALARCON ON HER THREE PLAYOFF SHUTOUTS