Wolverines stay unbeaten

TEXICO - Faced with its opening District 4-4A twin bill on Tuesday at Artesia, Portales baseball coach Ruben Tellez decided to get a look at his group of left-handed pitchers on Monday night.

The Rams paraded six hurlers to the mound, the first five of them lefties. Four-time defending Class 2A state champion Texico put together a pair of five-run innings to hand PHS an 11-2 setback.

"We were just trying to see who could do it on the mound for us," said Tellez, whose squad was coming off a 6-4 victory over East Mountain on Saturday at Ram Field. "Sometimes we make it harder than it is, but that's the name of the game.

"You have to give credit to Texico. They played good tonight."

Senior left-hander Seth Griego worked 5 1/3 innings for the Wolverines, allowing six hits and two runs (one earned) with two walks and eight strikeouts. Senior right-hander Freddy Davalos pitched out of trouble in the sixth and earned a save, striking out three and retiring five of the six hitters he faced.

Griego also drove in three runs with a go-ahead RBI double in a five-run fourth and a two-run single in a five-run sixth.

"This is a good win, for sure," Griego said. "It's always fun when you're pitching.

"I just pitch with a lot of confidence. I felt pretty good today, and my arm felt good."

The Wolverines (5-0) sent 10 men to the plate in the fourth and 11 in the sixth. The first rally was helped by three consecutive hit batsmen and capped by senior center fielder Gabe Bailey's two-run single.

In the sixth, Griego and senior catcher David Davalos hit back-to-back two-run singles to wrap up the scoring.

"It feels good, but we could've been better," Griego said. "There's always something to work on."

Texico coach Ty Thatcher said he threw some batting practice for his team earlier on Monday, and tried to get his players ready for breaking pitches.

"I spun a lot of curveballs at them, trying to prepare them," Thatcher said. "They gave us some free passes and some extra bases, and we had a couple of timely hits."

Griego and David Davalos both went 2-for-4 for Texico. The Rams (1-2) scored in the second when senior Josiah Tellez led off with a triple and came home on Travan Price's one-out single, and they added an unearned run in the sixth when designated hitter Braden Mignard singled home senior Dason Davis.

Portales got its first win on Saturday against East Mountain behind a complete-game pitching effort from senior Brent Mitchell.

"This was just our third game," coach Tellez said. "We'll just keep working. We've got to learn to play as a team."

Texico travels to Estancia for a non-district game on Thursday night, then is slated to begin District 6-2A competition with a home twin bill against Clayton on Saturday.

Portales' next outing will be on Tuesday in a district doubleheader at Lovington.