It was only fitting that the Laguna Acoma Junior/Senior High School Hawks got matched up against the McCurdy Charter School Bobcats in the first round of the Class 3A state baseball playoffs, May 2, at McCurdy.
The teams were supposed to play each other in the regular season, but there were two separate cancellations that never allowed it to happen.
When they finally did square-off, there was no lack of excitement, in a high-scoring, back-and-forth battle that the Hawks won, 15-11.
McCurdy seized the momentum in the first inning, scoring four runs off Laguna Acoma pitcher Jakobe Bryant. The inning was highlighted by RBI triples from Diego Borrego and Kemmer Croff.
Hawks’ coach Tim Rizek had already seen enough — and pulled his freshman pitcher and replaced him with Lyle Bahe.
The Bobcats held their 4-0 lead until Laguna Acoma was able to score three runs in the third inning.
“Now we made it interesting,” McCurdy head coach Roberto DeVargas said.
The most interesting part of the game would not come until the fifth inning, however.
McCurdy was ahead 7-3 at that point, then there was conversation between DeVargas and starting pitcher A.J. Vallo, about whether he should continue to pitch.
The coach decided to keep Vallo on the mound, a decision that he may have regretted later.
“We’re going to go one more (inning),” DeVargas said to Vallo. “Just relax and take it one batter at a time.”
Before he had any time to relax, the Hawks scored two quick runs and he hit two consecutive batters with a pitch, before he was finally replaced by Borrego.
Borrego’s luck was no different, as the first two Laguna Acoma batters he faced hit sacrifice bunts to tie the game, 7-7.
The Hawks added another two runs off an RBI from Tobyn Velasquez, to regain the lead, 9-7.
Borrego then walked two more batters to load the bases and set the stage for Laguna Acoma’s leading hitter, Xavier Gutierrez.
The senior delivered by hitting a grand slam to right field that had no chance of staying inside the field of play.
The play sent the Hawks’ bench into a frenzy — and pushed their run total in the inning to 10.
“He threw me an elevated fast ball right down the middle and I just turned on it,” Gutierrez said. “I honestly didn’t know that it was out until the umpire signaled it.”
Laguna Acoma started the season 2-12, but now are one of the hottest teams in Class 3A. The victory at McCurdy was their 10th consecutive.
Gutierrez said that all it took to turn the season around was to start playing as a team.
“We finally started playing together and we gelled,” he said. “Before, we weren’t together and once we decided to (come together) it all started clicking from their.”
They will put their 10-game winning streak on the line, at 10 a.m., Wednesday (5/9), at V. Sue Cleveland High School against the No. 1 seed, Texico High School Wolverines.
As for the Bobcats, there was no mistake in sensing the disappointment to losing in the first round, at home.
“The lid blew off and it was one bad inning,” DeVargas said to his team. “We all know, that’s all it takes. Nobody said this was going to be easy to be one of the top 16 teams in the state, they’re all tough. I understand it’s hard to lose a home game, it hurts, but it will make us tougher.”
McCurdy finished the season with a 12-7 record and will return all of its starters next spring.