Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
MORIARTY - Portales' 11-run surge in the closing innings helped the Rams seal a 15-0 win at Moriarty.
"It was kind of a weird day. The wind was blowing hard, then it stopped, then it would blow again. We kinda had to keep grinding out runs in the early innings," Rams coach Dusty Nusser said.
"Their pitcher (Justin Carmona) did a nice job of keeping us off-balanced, but then we put some at-bats together and then they took (Carmona) out after the sixth, and then we got to them pretty good."
Portales (11-8, 6-1 District 4-4A) scored five in the top of the sixth, including RBI doubles from Juan Espinoza, Josiah Lucero and Joel Legarda. The Rams would add six more in the seventh, and finish with 13 hits.
Legarda threw out four baserunners on the day, while Lucero pitched a complete game and drove in three runs. Luciano Rodriguez, meanwhile, went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs.
Portales will now play a doubleheader today against the Pintos (5-15, 1-6), starting at 11 a.m.
For Nusser, seeing his team play at a high level against district opponents is great, but as Tuesday proved against Texico, his team still needs always be ready.
"It's kinda frustrating as coaches," Nusser said. "The guys do a really good job of getting ready when they need to, but we need to get them to a point where they do that with every game, and not look at some games as less important than others."
