Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff writer
PORTALES — Senior Kailee Ramirez provided pitching and power hitting for Portales, which rolled to a season-opening 9-2 win over Class 5A Lovington in a four-team, round-robin tournament on Friday at Wheeler Park.
Ramirez went 3-for-3 with two homers and a double, and struck out nine Lady Wildcats in four innings of work.
“We’re just going to come out here and give everything that we have,” Ramirez said, “and I know my team is behind me and it was good to start this way.”
Ramirez struggled early, walking leadoff hitter Tori Ochoa and giving up a one-out single to Zarrion Garcia. An outfield error helped Ochoa score, but Ramirez got a strikeout and popup before hitting a homer to left-center to knot things in the bottom of the first.
The Lady Rams added two more runs in the inning on singles by junior shortstop Kiersten Ramirez and Victoria Cordova, and a pair of outfield errors from Lovington.
Portales made it 4-1 in the third when Kailee Ramirez doubled to left and scored on a Cordova single.
Lady Rams coach Robbie Crowley was happy with her team’s offensive output.
“I’m proud of the girls,” she said. “We didn’t really know what to expect tonight. I’m proud of the way that they competed and I’m glad to get this win.”
The Lady Wildcats (1-5) struggled getting any rhythm on offense, collecting only three hits, two by Juana Garcia.
The Lady Rams added three more runs in the fifth, coming on a two-run single by Cordova and an error that helped score Kassandra Rodriguez.
Kailee Ramirez, who switched positions with her sister in the fifth, finished off the scoring with a two-run home run in the sixth.
Kiersten Ramirez gave up one hit and struck out five over the final three innings. Cordova had three singles and drove in four runs as Portales pounded out 10 hits.
The Lady Rams play Loving at 1 p.m. and Dexter at 5 p.m. today.
Baseball — The Portales Rams won their second game of the Eunice tournament as Rey Ornelas threw an abbreviated no-hitter and the offense beat up on Hatch Valley in an 11-0 win.
Ornelas kept the Bears (3-2) guessing all afternoon. He struck out two and walked four.
The Rams (2-1) got off to a fast start as they scored four runs in the first inning. Draven Saiz knocked in two with a single for the big hit in the inning.
PHS added two more in the second on a Darin Bonem double. Omar Legarda also had a two-run double in the contest.
