Rams, Lady Rams play at home in first round

Portales High's baseball and softball teams will start out Class 3A state tournament bids at home this weekend.

The defending 3A champion Rams, who dropped a pair of District 4-3A doubleheaders last week, still earned a No. 8 seed with a 15-9 over all record in the 16-team state bracket on Sunday and will host ninth-seeded Bloomfield (17-11) in a first-round, best-of-3 series beginning with a 6 p.m. game on Friday at Ram Field.

The second game is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday with the third, if necessary, to follow.

The Lady Rams (20-5), runnersup to Silver in each of the past two 3A state events, earned the No. 1 seed in softball and will face 16th-seeded Socorro (7-13) at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Wheeler Park.

The PHS-Bloomfield winner advances to a quarterfinal game on May 16 against the winner between top-seeded Hope Christian and No. 16 Pojoaque at Rio Rancho Cleveland H.S. Cleveland will also host the semifinals the following day, with the championship game at 10 a.m. on May 18 at the University of New Mexico field.

The winner between the Lady Rams and Socorro moves into a quarterfinal match against either No. 8 Lovington or No. 9 Las Vegas Robertson at 10 a.m. on May 16 at Rio Rancho High. Semifinals the next day will be at Cleveland, with the championship game at 6 p.m. on May 18 at the UNM softball field.

Also qualifying in baseball were the Floyd Broncos (10-9), who earned the No. 8 seed in Class 1A and visit top-seeded Capitan in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday. The 1A semifinals and finals will be played the next two days at Rio Rancho High.

In tennis, the PHS girls are seeded eighth in the Class 1A--3A team tourney and face top-seeded Bosque starting at 9 a.m. on Friday at Albuquerque Academy, which hosts the entire 1A-3A event.

In individual competition, scheduled for the Jerry Cline Tennis Complex in Albuquerque, the PHS boys doubles team of Mychael Sturm and Austin Lucero face Michael Salas and Marcos Gallegos of Las Vegas Robertson at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

The girls, meantime, have two doubles entries, with Emily Walker and Jessie Privett drawing a bye and facing either Jessie Kotsch-Catie Ish of St. Michael's or Kimmeah Martinez-Vanessa Chung of Robertson in an 8 a.m. quarterfinal match on Thursday. Samantha Lopez and Belle Youngerwolf have a first-round date with Liz Stebbins-Dixie Cooper of Sandia Prep at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Finals in 1A-3A doubles individual competition will be played at 4 p.m. on Thursday.