Rams, Huskies split softball twin bill

Coach Robbie Crowley might make a habit out of yelling at Portales’ bats.

Coming into the first game of a doubleheader against Hope Christian, the Portales Lady Rams had managed just one hit through the first five innings of a scoreless game.

Crowley asked her team if she should tell the bats to wake up. When they said yes, Crowley, like Happy Gilmore when the golf ball wouldn’t go to its home, proceeded to badger the bats for their lack of production.

Whatever works. The Lady Rams got four hits and scored four runs in the next inning and survived a pesky Lady Huskies team 4-0.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales right fielder Sarah Lovato connects with a fly ball in the sixth inning for an RBI in the sixth inning of the Rams’ 4-0 victory over Hope Christian on Friday.

The Huskies’ offense woke up in the nightcap for a 5-4 win.

With Hope Christian (12-4) and Portales (10-5) ranked third and fourth, respectively in Class 4A softball, the doubleheader was indeed a battle of two of the best teams in the state with runs coming at a premium.

In the sixth inning, junior Sky Marianito was hit by a pitch and then advanced to second after senior Victoria Cordova was walked. With one out now in the sixth inning, sophomore Sarah Lovato finally got the Lady Rams on the board with a single to shallow right, allowing Marianito to easily score.

“Coach (Dodge) told me to lay down a bunt near third (base) to start off,” Lovato said. “When I had two strikes, I knew I had to hit it with the runners on base.”

The hits kept coming as freshman Grace Hooker and eighth-grader Wendy Baeza added RBI knocks of their own as Portales batted around in the inning.

With a four-run lead, Baeza took the mound and put down the Huskies in order to secure the win, something that might not have been possible had the third inning gone awry.

In the top of the third, Baeza loaded the bases with no outs as the Lady Huskies had their 3-4-5 hitters due next. Baeza got a strikeout and a pair of weak flyouts to end the threat.

“We had some of our top hitters coming up and we tried to get some hits,” Hope Christian coach Joe Chavez said. “Our girls just popped them up. Portales has a good pitcher. She did a really, really good job. When you have two great pitchers and two great teams, (Portales) just got their hitting earlier.

In her seven innings of work, Baeza allowed four hits, struck out nine batters and stranded seven runners.

“You don’t know with an eighth-grader if you go and talk to her or let her battle through it,” Crowley said, referring to the third inning. “She battled through it on her own. That’s huge moving forward. The girls backed her up. This is a huge win because Hope Christian is a good team.”

Portales had a 3-2 lead entering the seventh inning of the nightcap, but two fielding errors allowed Hope to tie the game and sent it into bonus baseball. To start out the eighth inning, the international tie breaker rule allowed Hope Christian’s Laura Schoenfelder to start off on second base. She would score off catcher Savannah Quezada’s single and courtesy runner Alexis Alomari would end up scoring the final run coming off one more Rams fielding error.

The Lady Rams stay at home as they face District 4-4A foe Ruidoso on Tuesday in a doubleheader with a 4 p.m. start scheduled.