Texico gets past Portales

EUNICE — The Texico Wolverines got off to a fast start in their season opener on Thursday.

Meantime, the Portales Rams are still getting things together after their basketball team made a run to last weekend’s Class 4A state finals.

Junior Ben Crist and sophomore Dalton Thatcher combined on a six-hitter and the Wolverines beat PHS 4-1 in a quarterfinal game of Eunice’s Cardinal Classic.

Texico advances to a 4 p.m. championship semifinal today against the Midland Christian junior varsity, while the Rams take on Kermit, Texas in a 1 p.m. consolation semifinal.

Wolverines coach Ty Thatcher was happy to see his team come out of the gates reasonably well.

“It’s always good to win the first one,” he said. “(Playing Portales) is always kind of a good measuring stick for us.”

Texico jumped on Rams senior right-hander Emilio Lovato for two runs in the first inning. Crist went the first three, allowing two hits, while Thatcher struck out five and scattered four singles over the final four frames to get the win.

Texico managed only four hits, but was able to put some things together.

“We outhit them, but we couldn’t string any hits together,” said Rams coach Dusty Nusser said, whose team lost at Clovis 10-0 in its opener on Tuesday. “And they did a few times.

“It’s a quick turnaround from basketball. The basketball guys are just going to come around as quick as they can.”

Thatcher went 1-for-2 at the plate for Texico, but also walked twice and scored a pair of runs. Meantime, Jordan Garcia and Isaac Gomez each had two hits for Portales, while Lovato drove in Juan Espionoa with a third-inning single for Portales’ lone run.