Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff photo: Matthew Asher Portales senior pitcher Grant Wagner steals second base in the second inning of Tuesday’s game against Clovis at Ram Field. Wagner scored later in the inning, also also five innings in the Rams’ 9-8 loss to the Wildcats.
Staff writer
PORTALES — The game of baseball is about minimizing your mistakes, while making your opponent’s faux pas count.
link Staff photo: Matthew Asher
Portales senior pitcher Grant Wagner steals second base in the second inning of Tuesday’s game against Clovis at Ram Field. Wagner scored later in the inning, also also five innings in the Rams’ 9-8 loss to the Wildcats.
The Clovis Wildcats were able to capitalize on several Portales fielding errors late to swipe a 9-8 win on Tuesday in the season opener for PHS at Ram Field.
The game seesawed through five innings with the score tied 6-6. Portales’ Grant Wagner and Clovis’ Daniel Gallegos each made it through the fifth, with none of Clovis’ runs earned against Wagner.
With the Cats nursing a 7-6 lead, Gallegos was pulled for senior Austin Adams after the first two Rams batters reached in the bottom of the sixth. Jacob Salgado then reached base on an error and Emilio Lovato followed with a go-ahead, two-run double.
Everything went wrong for Portales, though, in the top of the seventh. After getting an 0-2 count on Gabriel Montoya leading, Lovato threw three straight balls and then hit him on the full-count pitch.
Adams then hit a line drive to center fielder Josiah Lucero, who had the ball in his glove but dropped it to put runners at second and third with no outs.
“We booted it around and gave them some free runs because I guarantee our pitchers pitched their tails off,” Portales coach Dustin Nusser said. “We competed in the box. That’s a big thing.”
Jason Freeman tied the game with an RBI single, then worked a delayed steal with Adams. who broke for home and scored when the Rams botched the play.
“I just told them we have to find a way,” Clovis coach Richard Cruce said. “Down a run, you’ve got to find a way to score one. Two’s a bonus.”
The Rams had a chance to tie or win in the bottom half, but with two outs and runners at first and second Adams got Salgado to line out to left to end the game.
Nusser said he saw a lot to like from his team in defeat.
“We wanted to make sure we were competing, every pitch in the box and every pitch on the mound,” he said. “We knew mistakes were going to be made because that’s the game of baseball. We just have to learn to overcome those.”
Wagner allowed just four hits, walked two and struck out eight through five innings. Meantime, Gallegos gave up eight runs (six earned) on six hits, with three walks and four strikeouts.
Cruce was happy with the result, but not necessarily how the Cats got there. The teams combined for 12 errors, including seven on the Rams.
“At times we did things right,” Cruce said. “It was ugly a lot of the time, but give credit to the kids. They found a way to win the ballgame.”
Portales returns to action in a tournament at Eunice starting on Thursday. Clovis’ next outing will be on Tuesday at home against Lovington, a team they’ve already beaten 13-0 and 10-0 this season.
