Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Texico third baseman Cole Rohrbach leans away from an inside pitch in the first inning of Friday's doubleheader opener against Estancia. Rohrbach was awarded first base on the hit-by-pitch. Estancia beat Texico 4-1 in the opener, and Texico won the second game 10-0.
Texico shortstop Dalton Thatcher gets the throw too late to put down the tag on Estancia baserunner Jake Zamora in the first game of Friday's doubleheader.
TEXICO - After inclement weather interrupted the first game of Friday's Estancia-Texico baseball doubleheader, the skies lightened, the sun came out and the wind died down considerably for the nightcap.
Fitting, because things brightened for the Wolverines, too. Though they lost the opener 4-1, they run-ruled the Bears 10-0 in the second game, salvaging a split in a matchup of the state's first- and second-ranked 3A teams.
Both teams were certainly hoping for a sweep. But for both, a split was better than getting swept.
"I thought the games were good baseball games," Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. "That's a quality team that we just played. They hit the ball well all the way through their lineup."
"We came down really to win two," Estancia coach Hamilton Doyle said, "but they hit the ball in the second game; there isn't anything you can do. Both teams, when they're hitting the ball, are pretty potent."
The nightcap featured a five-inning shutout by Wolverines junior pitcher Dalton Thatcher, who scattered four hits, struck out three and ended the game by throwing to teammate Robin Winton and picking Estancia's Josh Thomas off second base.
Estancia's Zach Abeita threw a nice game in the opener, tossing a complete seven innings, striking out 10 and allowing just five hits. The lone Texico run that crossed against him was on a ball in the dirt, past the catcher.
Estancia built a 2-0 lead on an RBI single by Brian Walker in the first inning of the opener and an RBI triple by Thomas in the second inning of that game. A wild pitch followed, scoring a third Estancia run that inning.
The weather, meanwhile, was awful. Neither Dorothy's house nor Mrs. Gulch went flying by, but it was still brutally windy. Skies darkened, a little rain fell, but when the first bolt of lightning was sighted in the bottom of the second inning, it was the home-plate umpire's duty to suspend the game until it cleared up.
After it did about 45 minutes later, Texico could only muster that one run on the ball that got away, scored by Cole Rohrbach to make it 3-1 in the bottom of the third. The Bears added another run in the top of the seventh, when Abeita helped himself by doubling Thomas home.
Luke Phipps pitched solidly in that opener, but there wasn't a lot of offense to be had against Abeita. "He kept us off balance," Coach Thatcher said, "put himself in position to win."
And with the weather distractions, it just wasn't Texico's game.
"Luke pitched pretty well in the first game," Coach Thatcher said. "Dealing with the elements, dealing with the delay, dealing with not having a whole lot of run support, I thought he pitched a pretty good game."
In that contest, Texico did get a highlight-reel catch by Brayden Wines in center field.
"He's a go-getter," Coach Thatcher said. "He will go and get it."
Game 2 was quite different for the Wolverines. After a scoreless first inning, Texico's bats finally came alive in the second. Nate Phipps drew a leadoff walk, went to second base on a wild pitch, and came in to score when Ben Crist sent a 1-0 pitch into the gap in right-center for a double. Luke Phipps reached on an error and Cian Holmes was hit by a pitch before Brock Thompson ripped a two-run double down the left-field line that made it 3-0.
Holmes scored on a fielder's choice, pinch-runner Freddy Davalos came home on a Dalton Thatcher single and Thatcher came around on a Rohrbach single to center.
Texico was up 6-0, on its way to the 10-run victory and the split.
"Both teams I think, in a lot of ways, are very similar," Doyle said. "I just talked to Coach (Thatcher) right now. I'm like, 'We'll probably see each other again a little bit down the road.'"
First game
Estancia 4, Texico 1
Estancia 120 000 1 — 4 8 2
Texico 001 000 0 — 1 5 2
Zach Abeita and Josh Thomas. Luke Phipps, Nathan Phipps (7) and Brock Thompson. 2B — Estancia, Cruz Moreno, Abeita. 3B — Estancia, Thomas. W — Abeita. L — L. Phipps.
Second game
Texico 10, Estancia 0
Estancia 000 00 — 10 4 1
Texico 062 2x — 0 7 0
Cruz Moreno, Moises Anaya (4), Carlos Parra (4) and Josh Thomas. Dalton Thatcher and Brock Thompson. 2B — Texico, Ben Crist, Thompson. W — Thatcher. L — Moreno. Records — Estancia 17-3. Texico 17-2.
