The Española Valley High School baseball team continued to struggle, losing two games to Bernalillo High School, April 17, at home.
The Sundevils beat Del Notre High School, 11-1, on April 11, to break a six-game losing streak, but now have lost another four consecutive games, two of which included the doubleheader against Bernalillo, 8-0 and 20-1.
The Spartans, who compete in Class 4A District 5, were 13-8 coming into the doubleheader.
They lost their previous two games against Moriarty High School, 13-6 and 13-0, April 14, at Bernalillo.
Despite the favorable match-up against Española, Spartans’ head coach Brandon Gilliard wanted his team to prepare for a test.
“We just lost our last two games in bad fashion,” he said. “You have to prepare for every game knowing any team can win, despite what’s happened prior.”
His team clearly received his message and opened the game with five runs in the first inning.
Isaiah Chavez and Eric Beyale started the inning with singles, then were sent home by Daniel Gutierrez’s three-run blast, which cleared the center field fence for a home run.
Sundevils’ pitcher Chris Atencio allowed hits to the first four batters he faced, then walked the next two before the inning eventually ended.
“The first inning is what has been killing us all year,” Española head coach Miguel Duran said. “We just can’t get those first three outs, and the other team scores four or five runs. It’s hard to get their (players’) minds back up after that.”
The struggle in the first inning was key again, because the Spartans only scored three runs the remainder of the game and were held scoreless from the fifth inning, on.
The Española offense had a hard time getting anything to work with their bats.
Beyale, Bernalillo freshman pitcher, only allowed two hits and walked just one batter in seven innings pitched. He also struck out nine batters.
Offensively, the star of the game was the Spartans’ Gutierrez, who finished with a .667 batting average, three RBIs and the home run in the first inning.
Besides the inability to produce any offense, Duran said it goes back to the basics of the game.
“It’s the mentality and making mental errors,” he said. “We’re not catching routine pop flies and ground balls. That’s what’s killing us the most.”
Sundevil first baseman Jonathan Sanchez believes the team is close with each other, but not translating practice performance to games.
“We’re all real good friends off the field,” he said. “On the field, we’re just not playing together. Something just isn’t meshing.”
Española was enthusiastic heading into game two, but the Spartans put together another huge inning to jump ahead. This time, it happened to be the second inning instead of the first, where they scored nine runs.
Like the first game, Bernalillo went scoreless for three consecutive innings, after lighting up the scoreboard. Then, they closed the game out with another 11 runs in the sixth.
The Spartans recorded a whopping 19 RBIs and 17 hits in the second game, while the Sundevils only had four hits and one lone run in the fifth inning.
“I hope our players can stay focused and positive,” Duran said. “They’re playing with their heads down right now and it’s hard to bring them back up. The only ones who can bring them back up is themselves.”