Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Skyler Schuette dives for a ball during Monday's Clovis American softball practice at Greene Acres Park. American hosts the state fastpitch tournament this weekend and next, and will play noon Saturday. All games are at the Lady Wildcat Softball Complex.
Divina Lopez scoops up a ground ball during Monday's practice at Greene Acres Park.
CLOVIS - The 2018 New Mexico Junior Softball state championship will go through Clovis - in more ways than one.
The Wildcats 13-14 junior league team is the defending state champion, and will have an opportunity to repeat in its own backyard.
Clovis High School will play host to the championships next Friday through Sunday (July 13-15), but first, the junior 'Cats must get through this weekend. The Clovis American Little League team will host a sectional on Saturday, which also includes the Espanola/Pojoaque and Atrisco Valley all-star teams.
The winner between those two teams in the 9 a.m. game will play Clovis for the title at noon. A loser's bracket game at 3 p.m. will allow the winner of that game to also advance to next weekend's state tournament.
A second sectional in Gallup will take place from today through Sunday at the Turquoise Little League site. Three teams - La Plaza, Copper and Turquoise Nation will all be represented.
For Clovis coach Jose Lopez, this is his first year coaching the 13-14 team, but he knows many of these girls very well.
"I coached some of them throughout the years," he said. "They're all great players and they all came to work for all the coaches (in the past and present). They're ready to go, and my history with them, they do what I expect of them."
Leading the way are sisters Marisa Lopez (pitcher) and Divina Lopez (third base), to go along with Esperanza Tafoya, Alyssa Cruz, Abigail Morris and Marina Senna. And while this is Lopez' first year with the 13-14 team, a half-dozen of his current players were on last year's title team.
Lopez says that his girls are highly motivated and ready to win, and he doesn't see any real weaknesses in their games. "They all play good together," he explained. "Just hard work and keep doing what they've been doing (and we should be good to go)."
The 13-14 team won't be the only Clovis state representative in the coming weeks, however. The Clovis American 11-12 softball team plays in a sectional at Turquoise Nation today, facing the host team at 9 a.m. Also featured in the Gallup sectional are Sunset and Las Vegas.
In the 8-10 softball classification, the Roosevelt County Little League team faces Turquoise Nation today at 5 p.m. The sectional is held at Roadrunner Little League (Albuquerque) and also features Atrisco Valley and Copper.
Next week, meanwhile, will mark the baseball state championships. Roosevelt County's 13-14 junior team has a first-round bye next Friday, and will face the winner of Silver and Taos at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Enchantment Little League in Los Lunas will be the host site.
Clovis Zia 11-12 Little League will face Lions Hondo in Espanola next Friday at an undetermined time, with other sectional opponents still to be announced. And finally, the Clovis Zia 9-11 team will also play on Friday, versus the Artesia/TBA winner in Albuquerque.
Clovis American Little League president Doug Bowman, who handles both baseball and softball, feels that the Clovis league stacks up very well against the rest of the state. "The junior league (softball) team is the defending state champs, and they've got a pretty stout team this year," he said. "It'll be a little bit tougher for some of our other teams, but it's a tournament, and anything can happen."
