Winning is always a lot of fun — just ask the Pojoaque High School softball team.
The Elkettes have done a lot of it as of late, and they added to their streak by winning their seventh and eighth games in a row after a doubleheader against district opponent Moriarty High School April 12 at Chris Peterson Softball Field to put a 1-5 start to the season long in the rearview. The Elkettes won by margins of 14-3 in five innings in game 1 and 21-1 in three innings in game 2 against the Lady Pintos.
Pojoaque has not just won, but as the Moriarty scores would suggest, they’ve posted some large run differentials en route to a 9-5 overall record and 5-0 mark in District 2-4A before their away game against Los Alamos High School Tuesday (the results were not available by press time). They’ve outscored their opponents 89 to 22 while averaging 11.1 runs per game during the eight-game winning streak.
“Our defense is coming along and you’re seeing minimal errors as opposed to the beginning of the year,” Pojoaque head coach Chris Ortiz said. “Our sticks are coming along too, but it’s even greater when you see confidence in the dugout, because the girls are having fun and they’re eating too, so they’re good.”
Mixed in on a table among goldfish, pretzels, oatmeal creme pies and other snacks in the dugout was a box of 12 softballs ready for use against Moriarty, and they all happened to go missing at one point after the teams combined for countless foul balls over the backstop fence, many of them falling in the farm area of a residence just east of the field. It was just one of the small things the girls had big laughs about during the 14-3 mercy rule victory over the Lady Pintos in game 1 of the doubleheader.
“You don’t get balls back from there, that’s the ‘moo moo factory,’” Ortiz said laughing.
The “moo moo factory” apparently houses a live bull as well, something senior Hallie Vigil learned the hard way in practice one time.
“I jumped over that fence to get a ball and that bull charged at me,” she said. “I’ll never do that again. That thing had me jump back over the fence so fast.”
Pojoaque did their best bull impression, charging at Lady Pintos pitcher Gabby Aceves from the plate in game 1, and they did so by quickly erasing a 2-0 lead Moriarty built in the first inning behind a two-run RBI by Alexi Rodriguez after Elkettes’ pitcher Rebecca Chavez walked two batters and gave up a double on the first at-bat of the game.
The Elkettes answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning as Michaela Martinez hit a two-run RBI of her own and later crossed home plate after a wild pitch by Aceves. Pojoaque scored two more runs in the third inning and an additional three in the fourth to up the lead to 9-3.
Chavez calmly retired the first three Lady Pinto batters — with one strikeout — in top of the fifth, allowing the Elkettes to end the game in the bottom of the frame after Anissa Herrera hit a two-run RBI, advancing all the way to third base after two defensive errors by Moriarty.
Lefty swinger Ayanna Aguirre credited the communication among the team as one of the biggest reasons for why the wins just keep on coming.
“Our communication has gotten a lot better and we woke up our bats finally,” she said. “We’re just communicating better as a team and a family and becoming one, instead of like it was in the shaky beginning.”
She couldn’t ignore the fun the team has been having either.
“We picked up our attitude and our jokes too,” Aguirre added. “We can laugh and joke about it, but we still take the game serious, but having fun helps a lot.”
After their road game at Los Alamos Tuesday against the Lady Hilltoppers (9-9, 2-2), Pojoaque could be in store for a lot more fun when they travel to McCurdy Charter School Thursday (4/18) to face a Lady Bobcats squad who lost their ace pitcher Jeneva Serrano to injury against Pecos High School on April 11. After that, Pojoaque will play a doubleheader at Española Valley High School at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday.
“To continue the success, we just gotta keep having fun,” Ortiz said. “Keep hitting the ball, keep playing defense and keep playing hard in practice.”