Great week for Wolverines

TEXICO — Sunny, warm and pleasant beats cold, windy and crummy any day.

But, Texico’s baseball team gladly took the latter on Tuesday because in such unfriendly conditions, they swept Santa Rosa 12-2 and 10-0 at home in a battle of District 7-2A unbeatens. In absolutely miserable weather, the Wolverines had an absolutely memorable pair of games, overcoming a slow start to win the first in six innings, then taking the nightcap in five.

Better yet was the pitching. After allowing three hits in the first inning of Game 1, the Wolverines didn’t surrender any more for the remaining 10 innings. Luke Phipps battled back quickly from a rough start in the opener, and wound up with a three-hitter fueled by eight strikeouts. Dalton Thatcher fired an abbreviated no-hitter in the second game, coming a mere dropped third strike from five-inning perfection while fanning nine. As a result, Texico improved to 4-0 in district play, while dropping Santa Rosa to 3-2 against district competition.

Nasty weather? Didn’t seem to bother Texico at all.

“You’re always asking your guys to be tough, and tonight I felt like we were tougher than normal and tougher than our opponents. That’s always fun to see them figure that out,” Texico head coach Ty Thatcher said after Tuesday’s chill-fest. “It’s easy to play when it’s 80 degrees and no wind; this is, I guess, a little bit more of a motivating factor to stay warm and still play a pretty difficult game to compete at in normal conditions. So I think that’s the biggest thing; we had to come away with these two wins that were important to us as far as putting us in (district) position. But most importantly, I think they see the big picture, that they need to just play better baseball.”

While beating a previously undefeated district opponent, it was also nice for the Wolverines to take care of a longtime rival.

“We’ve been in Santa Rosa’s district for years and years and years,” Coach Thatcher said. “They always come to play, they’re competitive, they play the game hard. And our kids rise to the occasion for the most part.”

“We always have a rivalry against Santa Rosa, of course,” Phipps said. “We knew we had to play hard, show them that we’re better than they are.”

Aside from the pitching, Texico banged out 22 hits on the night, 16 of which came in Game 1. Everything seemed to click after that first half-inning.

“We played well. We hit the ball well,” Dalton Thatcher said. “We hadn’t hit it well this year, but really, we just hit it well (Tuesday night) and executed, made plays in the field. And it really helped us to get these two wins.”

However, anyone who just stayed for the top of the first inning of Game 1 might’ve left thinking the night would go quite differently.

Santa Rosa’s Darren Chavez led off the first game by slapping a 1-1 Phipps pitch into shallow right field. Daniel Esquibel was up next and he also greeted a 1-1 pitch for a single to shallow right. Phipps managed to come up with a strikeout, but he then walked Jaron Sanchez to load the bases.

Though Phipps then got ahead of Ricardo Chavez 0-2, he allowed Chavez to drive a single to shallow center, scoring two runs that gave Santa Rosa the early advantage.

“Coach Thatcher’s always preaching, pitch to contact,” Phipps said. “So they put it in play a couple of times and got on me a little there. It just happens in the game of baseball.”

“It’s a long game. You’ve just got to continue to play,” Dalton Thatcher said. “There are times when you’re going to be down; you’ve just got to score runs, get people in, hit the ball, put it in play.”

Texico didn’t take long to get one of the runs back. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, David Davalos ripped a single through the middle that scored Thatcher and cut Santa Rosa’s lead in half.

The score remained 2-1 for awhile, as Phipps settled down and Lions starter Darren Chavez kept the Wolverines mostly at bay. But in the bottom of the fourth inning, Texico broke loose.

After Chavez induced a Ruger Horton fly out to begin Texico’s half of the fourth, the Wolverines sent 11 men to the plate, loading the bases three times, collecting seven hits, and plating seven runs. It was a relentless barrage of singles — two-run singles coming from David Davalos and Horton, and one-run singles tallied by Freddy Davalos and Phipps. The other run scored when Cole Rohrbach reached on an error.

In the bottom of the fifth, Rohrbach doubled to score Freddy Davalos, and Phipps doubled to score Rohrbach, making it 10-2. Phipps eventually came home on a Robin Winton ground out, stretching Texico’s lead to nine runs.

With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Seth Griego was plunked and he went to second base when Freddy Davalos drew a walk. Dalton Thatcher followed with an RBI single that ended it on the mercy rule.

The nightcap was scoreless until the bottom of the second inning. Phipps led off with a walk, stole second base with David Davalos batting, and went to third on a Davalos single. With Winton at the plate, Davalos stole second base, setting up Winton for some heroics. And Winton came through, belting a two-run double, though he was thrown out trying to stretch for a triple.

The bases were then empty, but Horton walked and scored on an Isaac Ortiz double that gave Texico a 3-0 lead.

An RBI double for Rohrbach and a sacrifice fly from Phipps made it 5-0 in the bottom of the third inning. Texico couldn’t add to its lead in the fourth but finished the night off in the fifth, thanks to a two-run triple by Thatcher to the right-center gap, an RBI double by Rohrbach to the same gap, a Rohrbach run on a passed ball, and Horton reaching on an error with the bases loaded, forcing the game-winning run home.

With the second game concluded, Dalton Thatcher had a five-inning gem to his name.

“Great pitcher,” Phipps said of his teammate.

“It was fun,” Dalton Thatcher said. “I like to pitch.”

Though six days away at the time of Tuesday’s doubleheader sweep, Texico was already thinking about another twinbill, in which the Wolverines will host Eunice in a battle of state 2A powerhouses.

“We have Eunice on Monday,” Phipps said. “It’ll probably be a 1-2 matchup (in states), so we’ve got to play hard those two games.”