Baseball tournament may be due for more changes
Is it time for a change in the baseball state tournament? Classes 4A and 5A still field 16-team brackets that start with a bestof-three first-round series and continue the following week with the standard single-elimination quarterfinals, semifinals and championship.
Classes 2A and 3A changed to a 12-team bracket in 2022, the first full season following the coronavirus pandemic. The 2A field did away with the opening round series, going to a single-elimination format the entire way while the 3A tournament had teams seeded 5-12 play a best-of-three.
The top four seeds in both classes receive byes, undoubtedly a nod to their regular season accomplishments. It’s meant to be a reward.
The format for all four classes has remained the same for the last three seasons. The rationale for dropping to 12 was the glaring lack of competitive balance in the smaller classes. On paper, the alteration made sense.
The unforeseen circumstance is the pendulum shift in the other direction. The top four seeds are now vulnerable, leaving them without a game for up to two weeks while the bottom eight seeds all play between one and three games before the quarterfinals.
Rust is a factor.
Since the drop to 12 teams, the top four seeds in 3A are a combined 3-9 in the quarterfinals the last three years. That includes a 0-4 mark last week. Only once has a top-four seed advanced to the championship game.
The 2A field has seen its top four go 8-4 over that span but only 4-4 the last two years. Of the six state champions in 2A and 3A since 2022, two have been No. 1 seeds, with the No. 3 and the No. 4 each winning once. The other two have been 7 seeds, including No. 7 Robertson’s win over No. 8 West Las Vegas in Saturday’s 3A championship game.
The 4A and 5A brackets allow the top four teams to play an opening-round series. In the last three years, the 4A top teams are 7-5 and 5A clubs 8-4. The top two seeds in those tournaments have reached the state championship game eight times.
It seems there are two ways to fix it: Trim the playoffs to eight teams and extend the regular season another week, or expand back to 16 teams with opening-round series for the small schools.
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From the “you don’t see this often” category, Saturday’s Class 3A baseball championship game saw a batter get drilled by a pitch but then wasn’t allowed to take his base.
Robertson infielder Connor Bonney squared around to bunt in the second inning against West Las Vegas pitcher Xavier Martinez. The pitch sailed into the batter’s box and drilled Bonney around the belt line, dropping him to the ground as he recoiled to get out of the way.
He headed to first but was called back just seconds later when the umpire ruled it a strike. Turns out Bonney never pulled his bat back as the pitch came in. By definition, he swung. The rules say it’s a strike even if the pitch hits the batter, sails 15 feet over his head or bounces in the dirt.
Bonney reached on an error later in the at-bat, a miscue that brought home Robertson’s second run en route to a 12-8 win that secured the Cardinals’ second state title since 2019.
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Speaking of Bonney, the junior said after Friday’s 5-2 win over Ruidoso he is related to one William H. Bonney — better known as “Billy the Kid.” Bonney said he has been told he is related through the mother’s side of the notorious outlaw.
Connor Bonney had quite the entertaining final two days of the tournament. He had the game-tying hit in the sixth inning against the
Warriors, and he suffered bruises and cuts when he ran into a pole chasing a pop-up in foul territory.
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Abrianna Herrera, a 2023 graduate of Santa Fe Indian School, earned the Freshman of the Year award in her first year with the Haskell Indian Nations University softball program this spring. Herrera, a first baseman/utility player, had a .203 batting average with eight RBIs while playing 24 games on the season.
She played on SFIS’ back-to-back Class 3A runner-up softball teams and was on the 2022-23 3A runner-up basketball squad.
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Not to be left out of Santa Fe High’s track performance at the Track and Field State Championship over the weekend were junior girls hurdlers Zavia Burton and Rubiatou Sallah. They each finished in fifth place in their respective hurdle events — Burton in the 300-meter hurdles and Sallah in the 100 hurdles. They scored all of the Demons points (four) on girls side — good enough to tie for 16th.