By Mark Smith-Special to the Artesia Daily Press  

RIO RANCHO – There’s no substitute for experience, and the Artesia High School baseball team received a boatload of it during Rio Rancho’s Sal Puentes Tournament March 28-29. 

While the Bulldogs lost two of their three games in the tournament, they were extremely positive about the trip north. 

“It was a great opportunity for us,” said Artesia coach Jackson Bickel after his team’s 4-3 loss to host Rio Rancho in the event’s fifth-place game on Saturday. “We come here to see the style of play and see some great pitching from teams like (5A powers) Cleveland and Rio Rancho. This tournament will really help us get prepared for district and playing in 4A.” 

The Bulldogs lost 7-1 to Cleveland in their opening game on Thursday before beating Albuquerque Academy 9-6 on Friday. 

Saturday’s game against Rio Rancho was a nail-biter down to the last pitch when the Rams’ got a sharp single from Adrian Varoz down the third baseline to bring home the game-winning run. 

“He hit a hard ground ball that had eyes,” Bickel said with a smile. “It was a tough way to end, but we had plenty of chances.” 

Artesia (8-5) made the most of some of those chances, scoring the game’s first run in the top of the first before Rio Rancho (12-4) tied it with a run in the bottom of the third. 

A big and controversial play came in the Rams’ half of the fourth when Logan Sunstrom hit a sharp grounder to Artesia first baseman Jack Byers. Both players sprinted to first and Byers appeared to get to the bag a fraction of a second before Sunstrom as the two had a spectacular collision that saw runner and fielder thrown into the air before landing on their backs. 

Their teammates gathered around and after a few minutes both players got up on their own. 

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs and their fans were all shocked that Sunstrom was called safe on the play. 

“I thought I beat him to the bag,” said Byers, who went 5-for-10 on the weekend and made the all-tournament team. “But that’s what the umpire called, and you have to accept that. We have a next-play mentality and we couldn’t worry about the call.”  

The safe call led to an eventual 2-run single from Jacob Lucero that put Rio Rancho up 3-1 in the fourth inning. 

The Bulldogs came back to tie at 3-3 on RBI doubles by Frankie Galindo and Charlie Campbell. 

Byers, who also competes in football, basketball and golf, opened the sixth with a single and the Bulldogs had two runners in scoring position but left both on base. 

The score remained tied until Varoz’s single in the bottom of the seventh drove in the deciding run. 

In addition to Byers, Jett Whitmire and Kaden Beauregard also had stellar tournaments, Bickel said.