Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ROSWELL — With big hitting late, the Portales Rams moved into first place in District 4-4A — and assured themselves at least second place — with 8-3 and 16-2 wins Saturday at New Mexico Military Institute.
Portales (17-6, 8-4), which also won Friday’s series opener 7-6, will play a non-district schedule this week while it waits on the remaining 4-4A teams to finish up the district slate.
Hope Christian (16-7, 6-3), which took two of three from Moriarty on the weekend, dropped a half-game behind Portales in the 4-4A standings. The Huskies, who hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over Portales, will need to win at least two of three from NMMI in their Friday-Saturday series.
The Rams used 27 hits to dispatch the Colts, but were scoreless after the first three innings of each game. Portales scored all eight of its runs in the opener’s sixth inning.
“We just tied a lot of hits together,” Portales coach Dusty Nusser said. “We had six hits in the inning; they were all singles. We had chances in the third, but that was the only other time. We just got to their pitcher a little bit, his pitch count got up and we did a good job getting him out of the game.”
The second game went the full seven innings despite the lopsided final score — the Rams scored six in the seventh inning — as Damian Belden scattered four hits in a complete-game effort.
“It was close, for the most part,” Nusser said of the second game. “It was a little battle, 2-2 in the fourth, and again we got to their pitcher. After that, we started pounding the ball. I don’t know if we had many hits in the first three innings.
“Damian’s a contact pitcher, and we played pretty good defense behind him.”
Alex Galvan went 6-for-8 on the day with four RBIs and a 3-for-4 in each contest. Joe Ortega pitched for the Rams in the opener, and went 3-for-5 with four runs driven in during the nightcap.
Nusser is happy with the Rams’ finish — six straight wins after a 2-4 start in a tough 4-4A. The district’s five teams are a combined 43-21 outside of district, and only Moriarty (8-15, 2-7) has a losing record in non-district games.
“Our district’s tough,” Nusser said. “I told our guys there would be a good chance they all make it to Albuquerque. The only bad thing is one of us may end up playing another in the regional round.”
Portales closes the regular season with a pair of home outings — a 4:30 p.m. twin bill on Monday against Eunice and an 11 a.m. single game on Saturday against Texico.
