Last week the Española Valley Sundevil baseball team shook off the negative effects of a 21-1 spanking administered by Bernalillo April 15 and ended a three-game district losing streak. They swept a double-header from the Capital Jaguars 14-11, 13-7 April 18 in Santa Fe.
“We didn’t play to our potential, but we won so we’ll take them,” Española coach Anthony Alarid said.
The Sundevils battled back from behind in the opening game. Senior James Flores was shaky as Española’s starting pitcher and surrendered eight runs in the first three innings as the Jaguars took an 8-6 lead. Freshman Joaquin Scheppner came on in relief and held Capital to three runs over the next four innings.
“He’s going to be a hell of a pitcher,” Alarid said. “He was pretty effective at moving the ball around.”
The Sundevils scored four runs in the fifth inning to take a 12-9 lead. When the Jaguars came back to within one run at 12-11, Española scored two runs in the seventh inning to claim victory.
The Sundevils started stronger in the second game, taking an early 7-0 lead behind starting pitcher Daniel Archuleta.
When the Jaguar offense threatened to rally in the bottom of the fourth, the Sundevils stopped them with a 6-3 double play. In the next inning, Vigil snagged a soft line drive to first and tossed to second to double up a runner who had strayed too far from the bag — another rally-killing double play.
“We picked it up on defense,” Alarid said.
Española added two more runs in the seventh inning for its final margin of victory.
The Sundevils improved to 4-4 in District 2AAAA; they are in third place in the district standings.
Los Alamos sits in second and defending district champion Bernalillo is in first place.
“We needed to come back after losing to Bernalillo,” Alarid said. “It helped out the kids’ confidence.”
The Sundevils need to finish strong in district play to keep their postseason hopes alive. Española takes on Taos Wednesday (4/22). The Sundevils swept a doubleheader April 4 against the Tigers.
“We’ll take it one game at a time,” Alarid said. “We need to win Wednesday.”