Texico near three-peat

RIO RANCHO — Behind one more solid pitching performance and one more offensive clinic, the Texico Wolverines are in a position to win one more Class 3A title.

Texico is now one win from a 3A three-peat following an 11-1 victory Thursday over Capitan at Cleveland High School.

Texico (26-2) will take the field at Isotopes Park at noon against second-seeded Estancia, which topped Dexter 12-4. The Wolverines split a doubleheader in Texico in late April. Texico dropped the first game 4-1, but took the nightcap 10-0.

Junior Dalton Thatcher, who started that 10-0 game, is the probable starter for the title game. But Texico will have plenty of arms available since senior Ben Crist went the distance for an eight-strikeout, one-walk two-hitter.

“We’ve seen Estancia, and they’ve got a great lineup," Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. "They can hit the ball, so we’ll need to play defense. Depending on what they’ve got left, we’d either see (Zach) Abeyta or (Cruz) Moreno.

“We’re hitting the ball pretty well, so whoever they put out there hopefully we can get some runs behind Dalton, or Luke (Phipps), or whoever we put out there to throw the baseball.”

If the Wolverines hit like they did Thursday, primarily the third inning, they’re going to be just fine. Texico had eight hits, including six for extra bases, to chase starter Brendan Usrey before the seven-spot was finished.

“We put one on them in the first, left a couple of guys in scoring position. We got a couple in the second. A couple of guys in the bottom of the order got on base. In the third inning, we got two doubles and Dalton’s triple and that kind of got their guy rattled.”

Robin Winton led the offensive charge, going 3-for-4 with all doubles and three RBIs. Nathan Phipps and Brayden Wines each went 2-for-3 with a double, with Wines driving in a pair.

Capitan (14-8) put up its lone run in the fourth inning on a solo blast by catcher Price Bowen.