Rams open 4-4A with rout

PORTALES — The Rams' seven-run first inning accounted for most of the scoring in a 10-0 runaway victory in Friday's District 4-4A baseball opener against Ruidoso. Portales amassed four hits and four walks in the deciding opening frame.

"We did a good job, really, all across the board," Rams coach Dusty Nusser said. "We struggled in the first, made a couple errors, and then Josiah (Lucero) did a good job of getting us out of it. After that, we played really good baseball, all the way across."

After Lucero, who took the mound for the Rams, battled through a couple of errors and didn't allow a first inning run, Portales (5-6, 1-0) came to the plate in the bottom of the inning, and instantly jumped on the Warriors (0-8, 0-1).

Jordan Garcia led off the inning with a single to right field, before Joel Legarda was hit by a pitch with one out. A double steal by Garcia and pinch runner Isaiah Saiz quickly put runners into scoring position, before Isaac Gomez drove-in Garcia to put the Rams on top.

Luciano Rodriguez followed suit with a two-run single to the right field gap, extending the lead to 3-0. Even after a bunt out by Chandon Neece quickly produced the second out, the Rams were still far from done.

Logan McDaniel was hit by a Rylan Tercero pitch, which preceded three-straight walks, adding two more runs to the board. Even after a Ruidoso pitching change, the Rams soon got a two-run single from Lucero, increasing the lead to 7-0. In all, 13 Rams stepped to the plate in the opening inning.

"Seven runs in the first inning doesn't help anything," Warriors coach Billy Page explained. "I thought after that, we had a pretty decent ballgame. But (Tercero) got a little rattled, he hit a couple kids and just couldn't get out of his own head. We also had some poor at-bats and we couldn't get any numbers up on the board.

"We're young, experience-wise. I have three kids with varsity experience, as of last year, but we're in our eighth game, there's no excuses anymore. The biggest thing is attitude — our own. Have a better attitude when you get up to the plate, have a good approach and confidence in things that we do."

As for the Rams, after a bit of a rough first inning in the field and on the mound, things soon settled down, as the team essentially played mistake-free baseball from there on. According to Nusser, he had a talk with the two freshmen fielders who struggled in the first, telling them they're, 'There for a reason. Play with confidence, play like you deserve to be there.'

Clearly it worked, as did another effective outing from Lucero. Lucero went the distance, striking out three and allowing just three hits in five innings of work. As for plate discipline, Portales drew six much-needed walks, as the Rams improved on an area that has alluded them for most of the season.

"We talked a little bit about stats and we hadn't done a real good job of our strikeout-to-walk ratio. We talked about being a little more patient, and we talked about when we get out, we get ourselves out," Nusser said. "We swing at their pitch and not our pitch, and so we did a much better job of that today."

The Rams and Warriors will cap off their three-game set at Ram Field today with a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m.