Lady Cats drop finale against Hobbs

Clovis High junior Annie Tweedy sprints out of the batters’ box after hitting a single on Friday against Hobbs at Lady Wildcat Complex. Photo by Eric Kluth

Clovis High designated player Jordan Garrett had a pretty good week in the first game of Saturday’s District 4-5A softball doubleheader against Hobbs at Lady Wildcat Field.

Coming up with runners on base in every at-bat, the Marshall Junior High freshman went 4-for-4 with three doubles and seven RBIs in the Lady Wildcats’ 17-6 victory.

The Lady Eagles, who had lost 19 in a row since winning Clovis’ season-opening tournament, got two-hit pitching from Chelsea Drummond in the nightcap and broke out of their doldrums to salvage a 7-3 win in the finale of the three-game set.

Clovis won Friday’s series opener 8-1 behind the two-hit pitching of senior Paige Adare. With three rain delays totaling an hour and six minutes in the first two innings, the teams decided to push the second game of the scheduled twin bill back to Saturday morning.

Garrett hit a three-run double in the first, a two-run double in the second, an RBI double in the third and a run-scoring single in the fourth as the Lady Cats (13-12, 4-7 district) batted around in three of their four turns at the plate. The game ended after 4 1/2 innings on the 10-run rule.

“That’s the best game I’ve had all season,” said Garrett, who also scored three runs. “I hit the ball well.”

She said she enjoys having runners on when she comes to the plate.

“It motivates me,” she said. “I wanted the bases loaded again so I could just hammer the ball. It just pushes me to do better.”

Junior Annie Tweedy picked up her fourth pitching victory of the spring, allowing five hits and four earned runs while striking out eight. Meantime, Clovis pounded seven of its 16 hits for extra bases — four doubles, three triples.

Everybody in the Lady Cats’ lineup scored at least one run, while eight players had at least one hit and six at least one RBI. Christina Chavez, who went 3-for-3 and drove in three runs, hit a two-run triple in the first while Sara Salguero, Laura Wood and Adare added two-run singles later in the game.

“We came out and hit the ball in the gaps,” said CHS assistant coach Brandi Thomas, who ran the team in the second game with head coach Larry Trower having to leave for a wedding in Carlsbad. “We decided to come out and get it done early.

“Jordan played well. As coach Trower would say, ‘She throws her ears back and goes and gets it.’”

In the nightcap, the Lady Cats got off to a shaky start as Hobbs (4-19, 1-10) broke through for its first district win, taking a 5-0 lead in the second and adding insurance on a two-out, two-run single by Drummond in the seventh.

Both of Clovis’ hits were singles by leadoff hitter Nicole Chavez, but the Lady Cats failed to score over the final four innings.

“The first couple of innings we hit the ball, but it seemed like they were going right at them,” Thomas said. “We just couldn’t stay off the high ball.”

Ironically, the Lady Eagles were 4-2 at Lady Wildcat Field, 0-17 everywhere else. First-year Hobbs coach Rose Aiken said some early fielding faux pas had her concerned.

“We missed three pop-ups that cost us three runs,” she said. “Clovis is a well-coached team, and they never stop, so we were on edge the whole time.”

Catcher Sam Acevedo went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and two driven in for Hobbs.

“We made a ton of errors and mental mistakes this year,” Aiken said. “This was definitely a learning experience. As a first-year coach, you never expect to go on a 19-game losing streak.

“We’re going to grow from this. This wasn’t the end of the season for us, it was a new beginning.”

First game

Clovis 17, Hobbs 6

Hobbs 100 41 — 6 5 0

Clovis 542 6x —17 16 3

Patricia Huerta and Sam Acevedo; Annie Tweedy and Alicia Odom. W — Tweedy (4-2). L — Huerta. LOB — Hobbs 6, Clovis 7. 2B — Clovis: Jordan Garrett 3, Tweedy. 3B — Hobbs: Vicki Carrillo. Clovis: Christina Chavez, Laura Wood, Sara Salguero. T — 1:26.

Second game

Hobbs 7, Clovis 3

Hobbs 230 000 2 — 7 9 3

Clovis 012 000 0 — 3 2 2

Chelsea Drummond and Acevedo; Paige Adare and Odom. W — Drummond. L — Adare (9-10). DP — Hobbs 1. LOB — Hobbs 5, Clovis 8. 3B — Hobbs: Acevedo. T — 1:30. Records — Hobbs 4-19 (1-11 district), Clovis 13-12 (4-7). JV scores — Clovis 4-10, Hobbs 3-1.

District 4-5A

Dist. All

W-L W-L

Carlsbad 9-2 17-8

Eldorado 8-3 13-10-1

Manzano 6-6 12-14

Clovis 4-7 13-12

Hobbs 1-10 4-19

Friday’s games

Clovis 8, Hobbs 1

Carlsbad 3-10, Manzano 0-0

Saturday’s games

Clovis 17-3, Hobbs 6-7

Carlsbad 4, Manzano 0