The final day of the Southwest Classic baseball tournament on Saturday had moments people will never forget.
Early on, the Roswell High School varsity baseball team was looking to bounce back against the Burges Mustangs of El Paso after losing a close game in extra innings against their district rival, the Clovis Wildcats, last Friday night. The Coyotes led the game until the fifth inning where Clovis tied the game. The Coyotes were shut out from the seventh to the ninth, allowing the Wildcats to creep in and steal the game.
“We hit the ball hard and all over the place, but they made some good plays on us,” Coyote baseball head coach Ernest Lujan said. “We want to eliminate some of the walks we had. Overall, it was a clean game for both teams and they just eeked it out at the end.”
In the game for third place on Saturday, Roswell jumped to a 9-1 lead in the fifth inning against the Burges Mustangs. At the top of the sixth, Roswell allowed 10 runs and the Mustangs stole the game 11-9. Coach Lujan said he mismanaged his pitchers by pulling Luke Bogle to rest and allowing the Mustangs to return during that game.
“It was all on me, I pulled my pitcher who was doing well,” Lujan said. “His pitch count was a little high. He probably could’ve finished it, but I wanted to save his arm. We mixed up some guys and it was 100% on me.”
After that game, Goddard High School played the Clovis Wildcats for the championship on Saturday night, and the game was a low-scoring finale.
“It was a great performance by both teams,” Rockets baseball head coach Gilbert Alvarado said. “I felt like Clovis has gotten better and better as this tournament goes on. I can’t complain about the balls we hit, and they ran those down. We had a few strikeouts that I didn’t like, but the boys never gave up and didn’t roll over. It was time for us to play a 1-1 game. These are games where you start to learn things about yourself. This is one of those games where you have to play clean because every error will hurt you. We did and so did Clovis up until the very last play.”
Clovis started things against the Rockets by eeking out a run in the second inning but Goddard evened things out at the bottom of the third. Both teams are stingy in defense, shutting down five of seven innings against each other. The Rockets finally got the win by a walk-off by Ross Stokes at the bottom of the seventh. Clovis baseball head coach Richard Cruce praised his kids and Goddard for playing a good game.
“I’m proud of our kids, proud of the guy on the mound, Jashiah Mendoza, who threw his tail off tonight, they competed very well,” Cruce said. “There are situations where could’ve given up and we stayed in the ball game.”
Senior shortstop Ivan Miramontes and junior catcher Eli Lynn were named to the all-tournament team for Roswell in the Southwest Classic. Junior infielder Ross Stokes and junior second-baseman Ryan Alsup were selected to the all-tournament team for Goddard.
Roswell (1-3) will travel to Las Cruces for three games this weekend. The Coyotes have a doubleheader at Gadsden today beginning at 3 p.m. and then a game at Santa Teresa on Saturday at 12 p.m. Goddard played Moriarty in the opening round of the Artesia tournament on Thursday. The Rockets defeated Moriarty via the mercy rule, 19-1. Goddard (5-1) will play Carlsbad today in a semifinal at 4 p.m.
Sports reporter Blynn Juliano Beltran can be reached at 575-622-7710, ext. 304, or sports@rdrnews.com.
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