Late in his senior year, Adam Archuleta reached 100 career hits.
The rare accomplishment capped a great career for Peñasco’s first baseman
“It’s pretty awesome,” Archuleta said. “A lot of hard work. But I was happy to reach it.”
Archuleta was the lone player from Peñasco selected for the NMHSCA All-Star game on June 2-3 in Rio Rancho, playing with the top players in the 1A-3A series.
“Happy to be here to represent Peñasco,” Archuleta said. “Nice to be around all the players and see everyone.”
The 100-hits mark is even more impressive given the loss of the entire 2020 season due to COVID-19, and a shorter sophomore season in 2021. As an eighth-grader in 2019, he had just five hits in seven games.
Archuleta finished his senior year with a .644 batting average, a whopping .983 slugging and his first-career home run. He also recorded 38 total hits to finish his career with 104.
Archuleta logged 25 hits as a sophomore, then exploded for 36 in his junior year, and finished with a career-best 38 as a senior.
The Peñasco graduate continues his passion for baseball after finishing high school by coaching a local little league team in Taos, and playing in a summer league in Santa Fe.
For the first game on June 3, Archuleta subbed in in the fifth inning, and in his lone at bat brought in a run with a groundout. For the second game of the day, the third of the weekend, Archuleta drew the start at first base, and walked in his only plate appearance before coming out of the game after three innings. He also handled a few ground balls at first base without issue.
His junior year, the Panthers advanced to the state playoffs after an 11-13 season for the first time since 2008 (they spent most of the previous decade between one and four wins annually) and scored a win over McCurdy for the first time since 2009.
Throughout the weekend, Archuleta had to learn to play with a whole new squad of teammates.
“It’s baseball, it’s a game that they’ve loved since they were little kids,” said Chris Galbraith, the coach of Ruidoso high school who coached the green team for the All-Star weekend. Galbraith added that he was trying to learn everyone’s names in about two days.
“They get one last opportunity to play, and they try to do the best they can,” Galbraith said. “There’s a reason that every one of these 19 guys is an all star.”