The bats came out to play for both the Elkettes and Lady Sundevils in Pojoaque Valley’s 11-7 victory over Española Valley High School, Monday afternoon.
Pojoaque led 6-5 in a tight game, heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but it wouldn’t be close for long.
Hailey Ortiz started the inning off with a single, which was followed up by a Mikayla Padilla double. Kaylene Jacquez would later send Ortiz home with an RBI single, to make it 7-5.
Then, Analisa Lovato approached the plate with two players on base and still zero outs. She proceeded to hit a towering three-run homerun over the left field fence. It was her first home run of the season.
“It felt really good,” she said after the game. “In the past games, some innings were showing up with our bats and then others its three strikes and your out, right away. It felt really good for us to get a couple hits and then get some outs on defense.”
The inning would eventually end, but not until after the Elkettes recorded six hits.
Española would score two late runs in the seventh inning, but just didn’t have enough outs left to try and come back.
Pojoaque’s Miranda Salazar got things started early in the first inning with an RBI triple to give the Elkettes a 2-0 lead, after the first inning.
The Lady Sundevils responded in a big way in the second inning. Just like Lovato did for Pojoaque, Española’s Alexia Garcia hit a three-run home run, to send in Autumn Vigil and Tahler Suazo.
Española held a 4-2 lead through the fourth inning, before Pojoaque’s Rianna Arellano scored on a run off of a Michaela Martinez RBI double, to make it 4-3.
The Elkettes were also able to capitalize off of two Lady Sundevils’ mistakes in the fifth inning.
First, Española’s Leah Lujan got ahold of a routine ground ball, but then dropped it as she tried to tag the base runner, which allowed Jacquez to score. Española pitcher Autumn Vigil later threw a wild pitch to extend the Elkette’s lead to 6-4, before the outburst in the sixth inning.
After previously being out-scored 32-10 in their last two losses against Capital High School and Raton High School, head coach Ricky DeHerrera was happy to see his players put in a good performance.
“Finally (our bats came alive), it’s just day-to-day,” he said with a laugh. “We needed this to give us some confidence. We have a game tomorrow and then doubleheaders on Thursday and Saturday, so we really needed this.”
Pojoaque will take on Robertson High School at home before doubleheaders against Sandia Prep and West Las Vegas High School. All five games will be played at home.