Lady Rams fall to Santa Fe Indian

Santa Fe Indian School softball coach Paul Abeyto said he had a premonition.

Actually, it was more like wishful thinking that worked out.

Sam Pasena hit a line drive to right that bounced past Portales’ Santana Brito and went for a game-tying, two-run homer with two out in the sixth, and the Lady Braves added four runs in the seventh on Friday to hand Portales an 8-4 loss in a Class 3A state tournament round-of-16 game at PHS.

The 10th-seeded Lady Braves (18-9) advanced to a 4 p.m. quarterfinal game next Thursday against No. 2 Grants, an 11-0 winner on Thursday over Thoreau. The balance of the state tourney is at Field of Dreams in Las Cruces.

Portales carried a 4-2 lead into the sixth and junior pitcher Sasha Parker retired the first two hitters on two pitches before walking Lenora Loretto. That brought Pasena to the plate.

“I told Sam, ‘You’re going to hit a gapper between center and left, and hit an inside-the-park home run,’” Abeyta said. “I was just trying to build the confidence in her, but she hit it in a better place.”

Pasena’s slicing line drive took a crazy hop past Brito and rolled to the fence. By the time the ball came back in she had crossed the plate with the tying run.

Portales (15-12) struggled in the field in the seventh, helping the Lady Braves put the game away. One run scored on Parker’s throwing error, another on a single by Shalana Gachupin and two more on Loretto’s single which glanced off shortstop Sabriana Villanueva’s glove.

The Lady Rams committed two errors in the fourth, allowing Santa Fe Indian to score an unearned run and pull to 4-2. Left fielder Rebekah Gonzales prevented further damage by catching a fly ball in foul territory and gunning down Loretto trying to tag up and score from third base.

“It seems like our errors always cost us more than the other team’s errors,” PHS coach Robbie Crowley said. “That’s the bottom line.”

The Lady Rams scored in the first on an error, but left the bases loaded. They then broke a 1-1 tie with three more runs in the second, capped by RBI singles from Vicki Huber and Gonzales, but left two runners in scoring position.

“We’ve done that all year,” Crowley said. “Those are things we’ve definitely struggled with the last few games. It’s (loss) definitely disappointing.”

Winning pitcher April Abeyta, the coach’s daughter, allowed five hits with six walks and three strikeouts. But Portales got only one hit after the second inning and she retired 16 of the final 20 hitters.

“She started hitting her spots better,” said her father and coach. “Her pitches were working tonight.”

Parker allowed six hits, with four walks and seven strikeouts. Huber collected two of the Lady Rams’ five singles