Pojoaque’s 7-6 loss to Hope Christian May 7 in the Class AAA state baseball tournament meant more than the end of the season to Mike Garcia.
The senior, who played four years of varsity football and baseball, saw his high school career come to the end.
“It hurts,” Garcia said. “(Hope) came to play more than we did. It was an up-and-down year and it ended rough.”
It was Pojoaque’s second-straight one-run loss in the state tournament. Pojoaque was eliminated from last year’s tournament by Bloomfield 8-7 in the quarterfinals after leading 7-5 the seventh inning. This year, the loss came in the opening round.
Hope scored the winning run in the top of the seventh inning. Pojoaque put runners at second and third in the bottom of the seventh with none out, but the Huskies retired the next three batters to earn the victory.
“That’s kind of the story of our year,” Pojoaque coach Anthony Garcia, Mike Garcia’s father, said. “We left runners on base.”
Pojoaque had jumped out to a 6-3 lead by scoring four runs in the bottom of the second inning. An error by Hope, a single by Mike Garcia and a double by Josh Ortiz gave the Elks a three-run lead. Hope pitcher Matt Forsyth shut down the Elks and finished with 14 strikeouts.
“We got impatient and started chasing bad pitches,” coach Anthony Garcia said. “
Hope chipped away at Pojoaque’s lead. Garcia held the Huskies scoreless in the second, third and fourth innings. The Huskies scored a run in the top of the fifth on Nate Burford’s triple, tied the game in the top of the sixth on Forsyth’s two run single and scored the game-winner in the top of the seventh on a grounder up the middle by Ivan Spratte.
Pojoaque had finished the regular season with seven straight victories and had swept a doubleheader from Hope 6-2, 14-12 April 10 in Pojoaque. The Elks finished with seven hits against the Huskies, but just two came after the second inning.
“We were ahead when we weren’t chasing (Forsyth’s) high fastball,” Anthony Garcia said.
Mike Garcia is looking to continue his baseball career at either Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Ill., or Olive Harvey College in Chicago, Ill.
“I’m not ready to give it up,” he said.