Mora claims 1st title in rout
Basketball-crazed town has another reason to celebrate
ALBUQUERQUE — Strategically positioned in Manuel Benavidez’s blind spot was a small group of players holding a 5-gallon bucket of ice water. A dozen feet to their right was a host of parents and family members with their cameras at the ready.
Preparing to douse their head coach in a time-tested ritual for such events, the players never got that chance. A trio of men representing the New Mexico Activities Association and the Isotopes Park grounds crew saw what was about to happen and ran across the field to stop them just in time.
“That’s a bath I wouldn’t mind having, though,” Benavidez said as the bucket was ushered back into the dugout.
That moment, as it turned out, was the only thing that didn’t go right for the Mora baseball team in Friday morning’s Class 1A-2A State Baseball Tournament championship game at Isotopes Park. The Rangers rocked top-seeded Mesilla Valley, 12-2, in a game halted to five innings due to the mercy rule.
It was Mora’s first state championship and, according to a few of the players taking turns posing for photos with the blue title trophy, just the start of something much, much bigger. All but two seniors return to next year’s club, giving the basketball-crazed town situated between Taos and Las Vegas, N.M., something to look forward to that doesn’t involve packed gyms and 3-point shots.
“Basketball never really ends, but when it’s baseball season, it’s strictly baseball,” said senior Javier Branch, the architect of a masterful four-hit/no walks complete game that ended with a lazy fly ball to right to kick-start the formation of a miniature mosh pit near the pitcher’s mound. “Once baseball’s over, it nothing but basketball. I guess it’s basketball season again.”
Mora never trailed, pushing across four runs in the top of the second inning and eight more in a marathon third. Mesilla Valley burned through three pitchers in the inning as the Rangers scored eight runs on just one out. It could have been much, much worse as they left the bases loaded after sending 14 batters to the plate.
“That right there was just an amazing feeling,” said third baseman Alonzo Aragon, the team’s only other senior. “It was one of those things none of us wanted to see end. We were doing everything right.”
The Rangers finished with just eight hits but they got plenty of help from the SonBlazers’ pitching staff. Mesilla Valley walked nine batters and hit four more. Only one of Mora’s hits — a two-run double in the second inning — went for extra bases.
Branch and Aragon had two hits apiece as they combined with leadoff man Kenneth Martinez to collect five hits, score five times and drive in nine. The game never was close, although Mesilla Valley did cut it to 4-2 on a pair of misplayed balls hit into the outfield in the bottom of the second.
The highlight defensive play came early when Mora leftfielder Gene Hern made a spectacular diving grab of a Caleb Gohrick blooper near the foul line.
That play set the stage for bigger things to come, which included a seemingly endless parade of Rangers circling the bases in a station-to-station style that made it clear very early that the school’s trophy case needed to make room for America’s pastime.
“I’m taking this back home and putting it on the mound,” Benavidez said, holding the trophy under his right arm. “This is a special thing. These players have been working together since they were little, and this is something they’ve been dreaming about since they were little boys.”
When it was over, Aragon was grateful for a long list of things. One of them was the chance to go home and finally wash his uniform. The team decided early in the tournament that they didn’t want to jinx their postseason magic by washing off the dirt and sweat they’d earned with wins in the first two rounds.
“No way I was washing this thing,” he said, rubbing his bare hands down the front of his white-ish jersey. “Superstitions are real.”
And so, too, it seems is the fact that Mora is now just a little bit more than a basketball hotbed. Baseball has finally found its place.