Ram baseball, softball teams combine to go 5-0 against Las Vegas squads

It was a great weekend for the city of Portales and a rough one for the city of Las Vegas as the Rams and Lady Rams went a combined 5-0 against the West Las Vegas Dons and Robertson Cardinals.

The Lady Rams (14-5) swept the Lady Dons (9-8) 13-4 and 8-3 on Friday and then beat the cross-town Robertson Lady Cardinals (16-3), who are currently the No. 6 team in the state of New Mexico, 4-2 and 3-0 on Saturday.

Eighth-grader Wendy Baeza pitched all 28 innings for Portales in the four game stretch and helped her team out on offense as she went a combined 6-14 with 7 RBIs. Portales coach Robbie Crowley was very impressed with the job her young pitcher has done this season.

“Wendy did an outstanding job, pitching all four games,” Crowley said. “I think Wendy can do the job we need for the rest of the season.”

In the first game against West Las Vegas, Portales jumped out a 6-0 lead after three innings and continued to press the Lady Dons throughout the game as they scored six final runs in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach. The second game was more of the same as Portales limited West Las Vegas to just five hits.

The Saturday series was much more challenging for Portales, but that was to be expected from the top-ranked team in Class 4A who had just one loss coming into this game, courtesy of the No. 2 team in the state: The Hobbs Eagles, who have also beaten the Lady Rams.

Baeza limited the Lady Cardinals to just two hits in the first game, but four errors, including three in the second inning alone, gave Robertson a 2-1 lead. Portales refused to give up and handed Robertson its first loss since March 25.

“I was really proud the girls battled back and didn’t let them down,” Crowley said of the first Robertson game. “We had all those errors when they scored but we battled back and won.”

Just like the first game, the second game was heavy on defense as both teams combined for just seven hits. The game was still scoreless in the sixth inning when the Lady Rams finally got their only runs of the game, putting up three courtesy of their first four batters.

Alexis Garcia started off the inning with a double to centerfield. Kiersten Ramirez then drove Garcia in off a single of her own. Following Ramirez’ stealing of second base, Sky Marianito singled and stole second base as well. With runners at second and third base and still with no outs, Victoria Cordova drove in both runners with a double of her own to left field.

“We did what we needed to do defensively to set us up for that rally in the sixth,” Crowley said. “When the girls came to the dugout, I could see it in their eyes that we were going to score.”

Against Robertson, Portales ended the Cardinals nine-game winning streak and got a measure of payback after the Cardinals beat Portales 10-0 on March 24 while extending their own streak to six-straight wins.

Baseball — Back in Portales, the Rams baseball team beat West Las Vegas 3-1 thanks to senior pitcher Jacob Salgado’s complete game. He gave up just one unearned run off five hits, didn’t walk anybody and struck out one batter in his 90 total pitches.

“It was a good game,” Portales coach Dusty Nusser said. “Jacob did throw really well for us. Our defense turned a couple of double plays that kind of helped us and we got a couple of hits with guys on second to score.”

That first run came in the fourth inning when senior Draven Saiz drove in senior Grant Wagner from second base with an RBI single with two outs. Saiz would finish the game 2-3 and was the only Ram with more than one hit.

“We got (Saiz) solidified in the lineup,” Nusser said. “He’s had a slow start put he’s picked us up lately. That first run got us going.”

Portales (9-6) would get two more insurance runs, one coming in the fifth and the other in the sixth inning.

Overall, Nusser was very happy with the non-district win.

“That was a good game for seeding purposes,” he said. “West (Las Vegas) is also in Class 4A and split (their games) with Robertson. They have a chance to win their district this coming week. That’s a good win for us throughout the course of the state.”

The Rams will resume district play this Monday as they head out to Sandia Park to play East Mountain in a doubleheader with a 3 p.m. start time. The Lady Rams will also play their next games in Sandia Park with their doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday.