Ram baseball, softball teams eye blue trophies

PORTALES — After sweeping No. 8 West Las Vegas in the Class 4A baseball tournament first round last weekend, Portales finds itself one step closer to a 4A title repeat. For Coach Dusty Nusser and company, this year's field should provide some interesting challenges.

"Honestly, 1 through 8, anybody who gets to that third game (4A title game) is gonna be tough," Nusser said. "Most years, it's not always like that."

According to Nusser, the remaining eight teams, including Portales, have strong pitching, which should make for some low-scoring quarterfinals games on Thursday.

The Rams (18-10) anticipated a rematch with District 4-4A rival NMMI on Thursday, but No. 12 Santa Fe Indian (17-11) had other plans. The Braves went on the road to Roswell last Friday and Saturday and managed to take two of three from the Colts - who had cost Portales a district title by taking two of three at Ram Field the week before.

Expect Santa Fe Indian to roll with its ace pitcher, Kurt Canderlaria, when it faces Portales at 10 a.m. on Thursday, when the two squads meet in the 4A quarterfinal at Rio Rancho High School. Other matchups on Thursday include No. 1 Hope Christian vs. No. 8 Cobre (7 p.m.), No. 3 Robertson vs. No. 6 Bernalillo (4 p.m.) and No. 7 St. Michael's vs. No. 2 Silver (1 p.m.).

As for Canderlaria, despite his 42 innings and 1.50 ERA, the Braves pitching staff is no one-trick pony. "(Santa Fe Indian) does a good job of throwing quite a few guys," Nusser explained.

"(Canderlaria) has thrown 42 innings, but they have three or four other guys with 20-plus innings apiece. We could see a few guys Thursday, and obviously you gotta do what you gotta do to survive and advance. If we gotta do the same thing, like throw in Jordan (Garcia) or one of the others, we'll do whatever it takes."

Santa Fe Indian has wins over West Las Vegas, Robertson and Ruidoso in 2018. The Braves lost out on the District 5-4A title to Bernalillo and East Mountain, which, as Nusser explained, knocked the 17-win Braves all the way down to the 12-seed.

For Nusser, he believes that his Rams will have to do two things in particular to get back to a third-straight 4A title game. "No. 1, play good defense," Nusser said. "No. 2, we just gotta be able to handle the moment and keep our routine. At the end of the day, it's just baseball. Like I tell these guys, 'Don't look at (state) any differently than our alumni game, back in early March."

Portales softball (17-9), meanwhile, has title aspirations of their own. However, the Class 4A softball tournament will be a little bit more of an uphill battle for the Rams as their No. 6 seeding forces them into a play-in game this morning, rather than a first round bye.

The Rams face No. 11 East Mountain (12-12) at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Cleveland High School, which hosts all of the play-in and first-round games at its four-field complex. Other play-in games will include No. 8 Shiprock vs. No. 9 Navajo Prep (Field 2), No. 5 Santa Fe Indian vs. No. 12 Hatch Valley (Field 1) and No. 7 West Las Vegas vs. No. 10 Hope Christian (Field 4). All of those games will also start at 10:30.

Rams coach Nathan Dodge says that Portales used to play the Timberwolves in their former district, but he doesn't know much about the 2018 team. And while he was initially disappointed with the seeding, as a non-district champion got seeded ahead of Portales, he quickly got over it.

"People say you gotta beat them all (anyways)," Dodge explained. "First of all, we gotta take care of business in this first game and control what we can control. When you start playing in a tournament, you gotta get on a roll and start hitting. I expect that we'll get the jitters and nerves out of the way after the first game and go from there."

With the state softball format, a play-in loser is automatically eliminated from the tournament. Beyond that, however, it's a double-elimination format, as the loser's, or consolation bracket, will advance a winner to the title game, and vice versa with the winner's side.

The Rams, who lost as a No. 3 seed in the semifinals last year and as a No. 2 seed in the quarterfinals in 2016, are looking to get over the hump and finally break through this year.

According to Dodge, two things in particular are different for his team this year than previous years when he was the team's assistant coach.

"No. 1, we have two pitchers that we can go to (Wendy Baeza and Adrianna Garcia), unlike last year, when we relied on just one (Baeza)," Dodge said. "No. 2, we have to play more small ball."

Dodge says that a third state tournament appearance for Baeza certainly helps, experience-wise, and in particular, her ability to throw four to five different pitches. As for Garcia, the southpaw provides a different look, according to Dodge, because she's a little more off-speed and the ball comes in at a different angle.

Those two will no doubt have to step up this week, and so will the Rams hitters. One of the Rams' biggest breakout surprises is sophomore Abi Cameron, who leads the team in batting average (.625), on-base percentage (.667), slugging (.910) and OPS (1.578).

Cameron, along with the likes of Kim Hay, Devyn Lopez and countless others have been a big part of Portales' current 14-game win streak, which includes an undefeated run in 4A-District 4 play (12-0).

"They're very confident and ready to go," Dodge explained. "They're excited, and like I've said before, some of them were on the basketball (4A title) team this year. So, carrying that into softball is great, as far as handling high-pressure situations."