Portales gains 4A final 5-0

Staff writer

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RIO RANCHO — Portales baseball coach Dusty Nusser said his goal was to win three games during his team's trip to the Class 4A state baseball tournament this weekend.

With Friday's 5-0 victory over Cobre in the semifinals at Rio Rancho H.S., the second-seeded Rams (23-6) set a school record with their 20th consecutive win and need just one more today, in the 10 a.m. title game against Sandia Prep at the University of New Mexico’s Santa Ana Star Field, to finish it off.

The first three innings were the true definition of a pitchers’ duel as only one hit was recorded by either team. Then in the fourth, Cobre committed its lone error of the day, and the Rams made them pay dearly for it.

After junior Emilio Lovato drew a walk, eighth-grader Jordan Garcia entered as a courtesy runner and advanced to second base on a passed ball. When senior Grant Wagner struck out, Cobre catcher Ben Salas dropped the ball, allowing Wagner a chance to reach first base while Garcia darted to third.

Wagner was thrown out, but a throw to third trying to get Garcia was off its mark, allowing him to score the game’s first run.

“Jordan made a great read to get to third base to begin with,” Nusser said. “The throw got away and went deep enough into left field for Jordan to score. Great read by Jordan.”

The Rams added to their lead in the following inning when senior Chris Aranda led off the inning with a double. Senior Draven Saiz hit a single to move Aranda to third. With runners on first and third and no outs, sophomore Joel Legarda hit into a 6-4-3 double play as Aranda came home with the game’s second run.

Portales put the game out of reach in the sixth with three runs three runs of the game. Leadoff hitter Jacob Salgado hit a leadoff double and scored two batters later on Lovato’s two-bagger.

After Wagner was hit by a pitch, he and Lovato moved up on another passed ball before Aranda hit a two-run single.

The fact that it was Friday the 13th didn’t bother Lovato, who threw a four-hit shutout against the Indians (19-10), fanning eight while walking four on 103 pitches.

“Once again, he delivered,” Nusser said of Lovato. “He was on point today. It was a little warm on the turf so we had to keep him hydrated. He did a nice job of keeping his pitch count down to pitch the complete game.”

Cobre twice advanced runners to third, but the Rams’ defense was up to the task.

“One of those guys got to third on a throwing error with just one out,” Nusser said. “Emilio got out of that one with a strikeout and a groundout.

“Emilio pitched with a little bit of pressure, but he did a heck of a job. It was a big crowd today, lots of people, but Emilio handled himself well.”

The Rams (23-6) are seeking their first state baseball title today against defending champion Sandia Prep (26-4) since the 2012 squad went 35-10. The Sundevils beat Taos 9-2 in the other semifinal.

The teams met on March 25 in Portales as part of the Rams’ round-robin tournament, the Sundevils coming away with an 8-2 victory. However, Nusser, who will hand the ball to Salgado today, isn’t worried about a repeat of that game.

“That was Game 1 of our tournament,” Nusser said. “We each saw each other’s best guy. We’re now into the Day 3 guys, so it’ll be interesting to see how each pitcher holds up.”