Española Valley sewed up second place in District 2AAAA May 1 by sweeping the Bernalillo Lady Spartans 6-1, 7-4 in a road doubleheader.
The Sundevils finished the regular season 8-4 in District 2AAAA, while Bernalillo was 7-5 in district play. Los Alamos took first place with a 12-0 district record.
After losing 7-3 to Los Alamos April 28, the Sundevils had to sweep the Spartans to secure second place in district.
“Los Alamos was riding a wave,” Española coach Robbie Garcia said. “We were still in there and had to keep punching.”
Landing the biggest blows for the Sundevils was senior pitcher Renee Roybal, who accounted for all of Española’s runs in the loss to Los Alamos. Roybal smacked a two-run homer in the third inning with Los Alamos leading 5-0 and belted a solo home run in the seventh inning for Española’s final run.
Roybal hadn’t cooled down when the Sundevils’ showdown against the Spartans. She led off the first game of the doubleheader with another home run.
“That set the tone, and we scored three runs in the first inning,” Garcia said. “She pitched four scoreless innings.”
Bernalillo scored its only run in the fifth inning as the Sundevils cruised behind Roybal’s strong pitching for a five-run victory.
“She was hitting her spots, doing everything she needs to do,” Garcia said.
The second game had fans on both sides on the edge of their seats. Española had led 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Bernalillo battled back to tie the score and force extra innings. Under high school tiebreaker rules, each team begins the extra inning with a runner at second base and has three outs to score as many runs as they can.
The Sundevils batted first in the eighth inning with Serena Garcia at second base. A walk by Candace Archuleta and two strike outs brought Roybal to the plate with runners at first and second bases. She fouled off the first two pitches, took three balls and then . . .
“Renee hits a three-run home run that hits the scoreboard,” Garcia said.
The Sundevils led 7-4 when Bernalillo batted in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, the runner on second advanced to third on a passed ball. The next batter hit a line drive that was snagged by second baseman Duran, who threw to third base for the game-ending double play.
Roybal was the winning pitcher in both games against Bernalillo and has four home runs in her last three games.
“She’s sees that the end (of her high school career) is near and she wants to finish strong,” Garcia said. “She’s done that.”
The Sundevils finished 16-8 overall and will have to wait until May 9 to learn if they are among the 16 teams that will be selected to participate in the Class AAAA state playoffs. Española has not been ranked in the top 10 in the statewide coaches poll all season. Los Alamos finally cracked the top 10 in the poll, sneaking into the 10th spot in the latest poll.
“I talked to Los Alamos and they’re not expecting a high seed,” Garcia said. “Sometimes the seeding doesn’t go in our favor.”
Garcia said he expects Española should get a 10 to 12 seed. He said Española suffers from its location.
“We have to watch our budget and play schools in our area,” Garcia said. “We’re surrounded by Class AAA schools and it’s hard to schedule games against teams in our class.”
The Class AAAA state softball playoffs will be held May 14 and 15 in Las Cruces.