Behind a strong performance on the mound and at the plate by junior lefty Josh Lovato, the McCurdy Bobcats defeated Pecos 11-4 March 26 at home to win their second straight Northern Rio Grande baseball Tournament title.
Lovato pitched a complete game in the win over the Panthers, who had beaten Peñasco 10-9 March 25 in the semifinals to advance to the championship game. He allowed seven hits over seven innings and struck out nine batters.
“He was up to 84 pitches going into the seventh inning,” McCurdy coach Roberto DeVargas said. “I asked him how he felt and he said he was OK, so I left him in.”
Lovato drove in four runs and finished 4-of-5 from the plate with a double and a triple. Ryan Bustos, Bryan VanderVossen and Louis Jaramillo each had three hits for the Bobcats, who totalled 14 hits.
Bustos led off the game with a base hit and scored McCurdy’s first run. The Bobcats added a second run in the second inning on a double by Jaramillo and a single by Lovato. McCurdy extended its lead to 5-0 with three runs in the fourth inning and added one more in the fifth inning before Pecos got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Lovato’s triple in the top of the sixth inning brought in two runs and made the score 10-3 in favor of McCurdy heading into the final inning.
“Everybody is contributing from the freshmen on up,” DeVargas said. “Our bats are coming together and our defense is coming together.”
McCurdy had advanced to the championship game with an 18-9 victory over Mesa Vista March 25 in the semifinals. After a scoreless first inning, the Bobcats scored eight runs in the top of the second inning when Mesa Vista starter Sean Richardson suffered a streak of wildness and issued four walks, hit two batters and yielded two hits — both to Fernando Avila. Richardson was replaced on the mound by Alejandro Lopez with two outs in the second inning.
Richardson had thrown a 6-0 shutout against Pecos March 22 in Mesa Vista’s opening game of the season. He was forced out of the lineup in the McCurdy with a sore right elbow.
“He had said he was OK,’ Mesa Vista coach and Sean’s father Clifford Richardson said. “I probably shouldn’t have thrown him.”
McCurdy starting pitcher Justin Chavez took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth inning, although Mesa Vista had scored three runs on McCurdy errors. The Bobcats held a 14-3 lead and was three outs away from winning the game under the 10-run rule when Philip Rodriguez broke up the no-hitter with an infield single.
Andres Coronado followed with a base hit and Evan Jaramillo chased Chavez from the mound with a triple. The Trojans scored three runs to stay alive and force the game to go the distance. VanderVossen came on in relief for McCurdy and the Bobcats held off the Trojans for an 18-10 victory.
McCurdy had started the season 0-3 after finishing eighth at the Cardinal Invitational March 18 to 20 in Eunice. McCurdy lost to the Hobbs High School junior varsity 13-1, Tularosa 11-1 and Lordsburg 5-4 at the tournament.
McCurdy continues its predistrict schedule Thursday (4/1) against Estancia in the Santa Rosa tournament.
Third-Place
The Mesa Vista Trojans took third place at the Northern Rio Grande by defeating Peñasco 10-9 in a come-from-behind victory March 26 at Ranchitos Park in Española.
Mesa Vista trailed 8-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, The Trojans scored a run in the sixth and then came up with seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the game into extra innings.
Peñasco scored a run in the top of the eighth inning, but Mesa Vista answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning for the win. Alejandro Lopez scored the winning run from third base when a swinging third strike on Michael Velasquez got by Peñasco’s catcher. Velasquez was safe at first as Lopez scored the winning run.
Freshman Matt Richardson, son of coach Clifford Richardson, picked up the victory in relief. He came in to pitch in the third inning after Peñasco knocked around Mesa Vista starter Evan Jaramillo for a 7-0 lead.
The Trojans had defeated Mora 14-5 March 24 in the opening round of the tournament. Mesa Vista improved to 3-1 on the season with the win over Peñasco, but dropped a doubleheader, 15-5 and 11-0, to the St. Michael’s junior varsity team March 26 in Ojo Caliente to fall to 3-3.
The Trojans played six games in six days to start their season.
“I’m excited,” coach Richardson said. “We have 12 games left and that’s five more than we played last year. We’re getting the program going again.”