Softball: Lady Braves rally in sixth inning for crucial win over Lady Cardinals

James Barron | The New Mexican

5/7/2008 - 5/8/08

The last straw for Paul Abeyta was the laughter he heard from the visitor's dugout.

The sound belonged to a confident Las Vegas Robertson softball team, armed with a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning and an ace — Faith Gallegos — who was in control. To Abeyta, Santa Fe Indian School's head coach, it rang of something different.

"They're laughing at you," Abeyta told his players. "Look, come on. Let them know you're better than that.

"Just pull it out of here somewhere," he implored, as he tugged at the gray shirt covering his chest.

With that, the Lady Braves dug deep and pushed across four runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull off a 7-6 win in a crucial District 2AAA game at the SFIS softball complex Wednesday.

The rally kept the Lady Braves (16-5 overall) atop the district standings at 10-3 with a doubleheader at Raton left in the regular season. They have no doubt they will be playing in next week's 16-team Class AAA State Tournament in Farmington, but they would like to do it from the position of 2AAA champions.

A sweep of the Lady Tigers will do just that.

"Nobody wants to come in second or third," freshman catcher Kanora Martinez said. "Even though that's good and all, we still want to be first."

Martinez did her part to make sure that option was still available as she clubbed a triple to the left-field corner in the sixth to bring in Tanya Montoya for 6-4. It was the first of three consecutive hits that trimmed the Lady Cardinals' lead to 6-5 and put runners at first and third bases with one out.

Until that point, the Lady Braves hadn't registered a hit since Martinez's first-inning single, which turned into a two-run error as Robertson center fielder Jessica Encinias overran the ball to give SFIS a 3-1 lead.

Gallegos added to her sixth-inning troubles with a low throw to first on Miranda Felds' chopper to the mound, and Jessica Tsosie scored to tie it at 6-all. Shaylene Chino completed the comeback with a sacrifice fly to center, which allowed Amber Sanchez to score easily for a one-run advantage.

Robertson head coach Chris Najar had an uneasy feeling even as Gallegos retired 11 straight batters before an error in the fifth broke the string.

"The hits they were getting weren't solid, and they rarely are with her," Najar said. "That was just one of those games ... Indian School is tough. Even when we were up 6-3,
I knew that with them, it wasn't enough."

The Lady Cardinals' bats went silent in the final three innings against SFIS ace April Abeyta, who is the coach's daughter.

Robertson (13-11, 8-5) broke though with three runs in the second on three singles and three walks, then added two more in the fourth on Encinias' two-run double for a three-run margin.

After that, April Abeyta (11-4) allowed only two walks over the next 31/3 innings.

The junior ended the afternoon with a flurry of strikeouts with six of her 11 in that span.

"I had to use all of my pitches and a little bit of speed," April Abeyta said. "I try to throw hard, but they're a good hitting team. I just tried to do the best that I could."

Abeyta will need to take the momentum built in the final two frames against Robertson on the three-hour road trip to Raton.

A split with the Lady Tigers opens the door for St. Michael's, which is 9-4 in the district after beating West Las Vegas 10-6 on Wednesday.

If the Lady Horsemen sweep Pojoaque on Saturday, they will win the district by virtue of winning two of three games over SFIS.

Coach Abeyta said his initial plan is to let his daughter pitch the first game and see how she feels for Game 2.

Meanwhile, April Abeyta already is thinking about the long drive and how to get her teammates ready for the biggest doubleheader of the season.

"It's a hard to stay focused on a long trip like that," April Abeyta said. "So I want to talk to them and not let the trip get to them. We want to get them ready and pumped up just before we get there."