The Bulldog baseball team advanced to the Class 4A state semifinal round for the second consecutive year Thursday, while the Lady Bulldog softball team stayed alive despite a loss to top-ranked Gallup.
At the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Sports Complex in Albuquerque Thursday afternoon, the fifth-ranked boys in orange notched a significant coup against a No. 4 St. Pius program that has eliminated Artesia from the baseball playoffs in all five of the teams’ five meetings since 2011, defeating the Sartans by a final of 4-0.
Following a pitchers’ duel between Bulldog sophomore Jack Byers and Sartan senior Ruben Jepsen that lasted five complete innings, the Diamond ‘Dogs were first on the board in the top of the sixth when Daelon Pacheco — on with a leadoff line-drive single off the Pius third baseman — advanced to second and third on ground outs before scoring on a clutch two-out single to right-center by shortstop Jett Fuentes.
Byers got a fly-out to Jett Whitmire in right, a line-out to Kaden Beauregard in left, and a strikeout to seat the Sartans in order in the home half of the inning, and Artesia would add three big insurance runs to their tally in the top of seven on a two-RBI triple by Diego Morales and a base hit to right by Jesse Armendariz.
The Bulldogs then delivered their third consecutive 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half to end the game on consecutive ground balls to Rickey Armendariz at first and a ground out to Nye Estrada at second. Byers surrendered just two hits while striking out seven in a stellar seven innings of work.
The ‘Dogs (16-13) will now face a familiar face — top-ranked Goddard — in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Friday. Artesia went 1-2 against their District 4-AAAA rivals May 2 and 3 in D4 play, coming up short of the Rockets in their first two meetings, 7-1 and 8-3, before run-ruling Goddard 16-6 in their final pre-playoff bout. The Rockets (23-6) bested No. 8 Bloomfield 9-4 Thursday to advance.
Meanwhile at the Cleveland High School softball complex in Rio Rancho, the No. 5 Lady Bulldogs got the first round of double-elimination play off to an excellent start Thursday morning with a 7-0 win over fourth-ranked St. Pius. That game was delayed over an hour due to heavy rainfall in the area.
The Artesia girls took a four-run lead out of the bottom of the first in that contest, batting around in their inaugural trip to the plate and scoring on a Mikenzi Carlo RBI ground out and three consecutive bases-loaded walks from Kinsley Rodriguez, Makayla Lujan and Zowe Warren.
With senior pitcher Madison Martinez and her defense holding the Lady Sartans at bay, the Lady ‘Dogs would add insurance runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings to ultimately round out the 7-0 final. Lujan — on with a leadoff triple — came home on a McKenna Morrison ground out in the third and also scored Artesia’s run in the fifth after reaching on a leadoff walk and coming around on a single up the middle from Perseis Aguilar. Carlo — aboard with a leadoff base hit — then scored in the sixth on a two-out single from Rodriguez.
Martinez tossed a four-hitter through seven complete with nine Ks. At the plate, Aguilar was 2-2 with an RBI, Martinez 2-4 and Lujan 1-1.
Top-ranked Gallup was able to turn the tables on the Lady Bulldogs Thursday afternoon, however, taking four runs of their own out of the first inning en route to a 6-2 win.
Minus that opening at-bat — which saw Gallup score on a Morgan Belone RBI double and RBI singles from Madison Martinez, Leia Tso and Yanabah Harvey — things were evenly matched between the Lady ‘Dogs and Lady Bengals. The Artesia girls got their first run on the board in the top of the second on a solo home run over the fence in center from pitcher Kayden Apodaca and cut their deficit in half, 4-2, in the fifth on an error.
The Lady Bulldogs also had multiple other chances to tie things up and take the lead, losing runners — and giving up double plays — in both the third and fourth innings on line-drive pick-offs and leaving eight total stranded on the bout. The Lady Bengals, meanwhile, plated their fifth and sixth runs — both unearned — in the bottom of the sixth on a Jazmine Marrufo base hit up the middle.
With the loss, the Lady ‘Dogs (20-8) dropped into the losers’ bracket, where they’ll need to go 3-0 Friday to work their way back into Saturday’s championship. The Artesia girls will also be meeting up with a familiar foe in their first game of the day at 9 a.m.: the District 4-AAAA Champion Lovington Lady Wildcats.
The ‘Cats (24-5), ranked second in this year’s state tournament, were upended by No. 7 Aztec Thursday morning, 6-4, and beat No. 6 Bernalillo 7-2 Thursday afternoon. They won the district by way of a double-header sweep of Artesia April 19 at The Mack, 6-2 and 3-2, but fell to the Lady Bulldogs 6-2 in the teams’ final D4 meeting April 30. The winner of Friday morning’s game will play again at 1 p.m. versus the winner of Aztec/St. Pius.
Elsewhere Friday, the Bulldog and Lady Bulldog track and field teams will be kicking off Day One of the Class 4A State Meet at the Great Friends of UNM Track and Field Complex.
Artesia athletes will be competing in four field-event finals Friday morning:
- Boys’ Long Jump: Esiah Sais (top qualifying mark: 21’2″); Moises Corza (20’7″); Bryce Parra (20’4.25″); Luis Torres (20’4″) – 8 a.m.
- Girls’ Long Jump: Kailee Padilla (16’9″) – 10 a.m.
- Boys’ Shot Put: Marco Soto (48’4″) – 11 a.m.
- Girls’ Discus: Lorin Wagner (110’1″); Kymber Beltran (107’2″); Alicia Torrez (103’5″) – 11 a.m.
Distance running finals set for Friday include:
- Boys’ 3200-Meter Relay: Artesia qualifiers (Damian Aguilar, Michael Quinones, Hector Maldonado, Aden Garcia, Matthew Hafliger, Erardo Gonzales, Parker Jarratt) (8:55.65)
- Girls’ 1600-Meter Run: Makaylee Morillon (5:23.54); MacKenzie Norton (6:01.03)
- Boys’ 1600-Meter Run: Zane Baize (4:29.48); Erardo Gonzales (4:46.84)
Saturday field-event finals will include:
- Girls’ Shot Put: Lorin Wagner (40’0.5″); Brooklynne Ivans (35’7″); Kymber Beltran (34’9″); Lily Klingshirn (33’3″) – 8 a.m.
- Girls’ Pole Vault: Isabel Irvin (9′) – 8 a.m.
- Boys’ Triple Jump: Cael Houghtaling (42’3″); Phillip Finley (41’3″) – 8 a.m.
- Boys’ High Jump: Parker Jarratt (6’2″) – 9:30 a.m.
- Girls’ Triple Jump: Madison Pittman (35’4″) – 9:30 a.m.
Saturday’s distance running finals include:
- Girls’ 800-Meter Run: Sydney Boone (2:23.49)
- Boys’ 800-Meter Run: Zane Baize (1:57.08)
- Girls’ 3200-Meter Run: Makaylee Morillon (11:57.71); MacKenzie Norton (12:58.21); Marie Wittmar (14:25.15)
- Boys’ 3200-Meter Run: Erardo Gonzales (10:58.16)
Artesia athletes will also be competing in preliminary running events Friday for the right to advance to Saturday’s finals in the girls’ and boys’ 400-, 800-, 1600 medley and 1600-meter relays; the girls’ 100-meter hurdles; the boys’ 110-meter hurdles and 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes; and the girls’ and boys’ 300-meter hurdles.