Cats fall to Goddard in tourney

RIO RANCHO — Clovis High's baseball team continued to get fairly good pitching on Friday. The Wildcats are simply having trouble plating runs.

Roswell Goddard broke open a close game with four runs in the top of the seventh and handed the Cats a 7-1 loss in the consolation semifinals of Rio Rancho's Sal Puentes Invitational.

Clovis (4-5) will meet St. Pius for seventh place at 9 a.m. today. The Sartans elected not to play Artesia in Friday's other consolation semifinal because of the Good Friday holiday, CHS coach Shane Leatherwood said.

The Cats pulled to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth when sophomore Brody Edwards drew a bases-loaded walk, but they couldn't come up with another hit to perhaps tie the game.

Brad Blackwell doubled twice and Mark McCool had two hits and two RBIs for the Rockets (6-1), who face Artesia for fifth place today. Cal Villareal pitched 5 1/3 innings to get the win.

"Goddard's a top (Class) 4A program right now," Leatherwood said. "We played with them, but we're trying to find our hitting. If we don't start hitting, we're going to keep these games close for a while and then lose them in the end."

Junior Andres Tapia allowed two runs in the first, but then pitched well before running into trouble in the seventh.

"Andres pitched well," Leatherwood said. "He had a rough first inning, but he settled down after that."