Texico baseball team suffers first loss of young season

GODDARD — Texico’s boys basketball team didn’t endure its first loss until the final game of the season.

Texico’s baseball team got it out of the way early.

Friday, the Wolverines rallied to go ahead in the late innings, then surrendered the lead and lost to Midland Christian 8-7 at the Goddard Round Robin Tournament, dropping to 1-1 as a result.

Midland Christian led right away, going up 1-0 in the top of the first inning, and after the Wolves tied it at 1 in the bottom of the second, the Mustangs took a 4-1 lead in the top of the third before making it 5-1 in the top of the fourth.

Texico closed to within 5-4 in the bottom of the fourth, then took its first lead of the day in the bottom of the fifth, when senior Nathan Phipps clobbered a three-run homer, giving the Wolverines a 7-5 lead.

It didn’t last, though. In the top of the sixth inning, Midland Christian reclaimed the lead, and did so without a big blast or any big hit. The Mustangs scored two runs on a passed ball, tying the game at 7, then grabbed an 8-7 lead on a sacrifice fly.

Texico was unable to score the equalizer in either of the last two innings. The Wolves did get the tying run on in the top of the seventh, when Robin Winton drew a leadoff walk. Dalton Thatcher then whacked one that looked like it might do something, but it turned into a line-drive out. After Cole Rohrbach flied out, a passed ball sent Winton to second base, and opened first for Phipps, who was intentionally walked.

Up came Ben Crist with Texico’s last chance. He was 2-for-2 up to that point, but on that at-bat, he grounded out 6-3.

No undefeated season for the baseball team, which may be a good thing. Still, it hurt to drop a close one, as it always does.

“That was definitely a tough loss,” Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. “We had that crucial passed ball that scores not only one ... they scored two on one passed ball to tie the game up. They had a little momentum and came up with a sac fly.”

Despite Thursday’s season-opening 21-0 rout of Tularosa, Coach Thatcher said the team didn’t seem to be at its best on Friday.

“I felt like the kids competed,” he said. “I think we did go through the motions a bit early in that game. We just have to wake up and realize that we have to play the seven innings. We walked into a game (Thursday) that was easy. Today it wasn’t easy. We just expected it to happen. We’ve got to compete a little bit tougher.”

Aside from Crist’s 2-for-3 day, Phipps finished 2-for-2, including that three-run blast.

Midland Christian’s Nathan Woodridge was 2-for-3, including a home run. The Mustangs’ Tripp Pennington went 3-for-4, including a double.

Pennington, who relieved starter Luke Greenley in the sixth inning, earned the win for Midland Christian (7-3). Ryan Parker closed it out for the Mustangs.

Cian Holmes (0-1) took the loss for Texico; he had relieved the starter Phipps in the fifth inning. Dalton Thatcher came on in the sixth inning and finished it out for the Wolverines.

Coach Thatcher hopes his team received an early-season education from Friday’s disappointing loss.

“Good ball game, good for us,” he said. “We got a full seven innings in. We had some chances to win the game. DIdn’t get the hits to get that run when we needed it, and didn’t keep those (Midland Christian) runs at bay.”

Texico is back in action today at 4 p.m., playing the loser of Friday’s Portales-Eunice game.

The Wolverines visit Eunice for a double-header on Tuesday, with the first game scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. and the nightcap slated for afterward, with first pitch in that one expected around 6 p.m.