Rams get sweep at Lovington

Staff report

LOVINGTON — Portales and Lovington each scored in five of their 14 total innings on Tuesday.

But Portales did a lot more with its five innings, giving it all the offense it needed in a 12-3, 6-2 sweep to open District 4-3A play.

It was quite a shift for Portales (8-8, 2-0 district), which was coming off of an ugly pair of losses against Bloomfield on Saturday at Rio Rancho.

“Coming off of the weekend we had, we had some heart-to-hearts with our kids,” Portales coach Dusty Nusser said. “They stepped up when they needed to. Our district’s going to be pretty tough. We’re all pretty much the same and we’ve all got to compete.”

The Rams jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning of the opener, and closed out the doubleheader with another four-run effort in the seventh.

The Rams also posted innings of five, three and two runs, respectively, and outhit the Wildcats 21-10. Lovington (11-7, 0-2) never scored more than once in any inning.

Senior Daniel Sanchez allowed nine hits in the complete game opener and struck out six. Sophomore Grant Wagner was solid in the nightcap, tossing a one-hitter with nine strikeouts while also going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs driven in.

“Grant threw well,” Nusser said. “He had six walks, and two of them came in the first inning. He settled down after that.”

Portales is idle until next Tuesday, when it hosts Ruidoso in a 4:30 p.m. doubleheader.

The Rams will use this weekend to hold a youth baseball camp at Ram Field. The camp will run from 5-7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and from 8-10 a.m. on Saturday. Registration is $40 and will be accepted beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the field.