State baseball: Demons’ season crashes down against La Cueva

James Barron | The New Mexican

5/21/2008 - 5/22/08

RIO RANCHO — Tomorrow began too soon for the Santa Fe High baseball team.

It started the moment senior pitcher Herbie Romero handed the ball to head coach John Morrison on Wednesday afternoon, who then passed the torch to sophomore and Herbie's younger brother Roby Romero.

No ceremony accompanied the moment — only a hearty applause from the roughly
100 Santa Fe High fans in attendance at Rio Rancho High School for a quarterfinal of the Class AAAAA State Baseball Tournament.

There also was the regret of the Romeros and Morrison, because the scoreboard in right field said all there needed to say about the brevity of the moment: Albuquerque La Cueva 6, Santa Fe 0.

"Herbie's a guy who has carried us all season long," Morrison said. "We wanted to go with him and we've lived and died with him — more lived than died. It's tough to take the ball from him, but he knows.

"When you don't have it, you don't have it."

Neither did his Demons teammates, who saw their 2008 season end when catcher Mando Martinez grounded out to shortstop Tyler Black, completing an 11-0, five-inning whitewash. The Bears, the tournament's top seed, play
No. 4 Eldorado today at 2 p.m. at Lobo Field.

For the Demons, who finish 20-9 after a 31-year absence from the postseason, their ending to what has been a surprising season was not what they had wanted. It seemed that Mother Nature conspired with the Bears, bringing 30 mph winds that gusted to almost
50 at times during the 85-minute affair.

Not that the Bears (26-3) enjoyed it any better.

"It (the wind) was killing me," La Cueva left-hander Corey Lamont said. "It was blowing me around everywhere."

But it didn't distract him on the mound. Seven of his 15 outs were recorded on the ground, and he retired the first 10 Demons he faced before Anthony Ratliff stroked a one-out single in the fourth.

Lamont was in no danger by that point, thanks to an eight-run outburst in the third that chased Herbie Romero and padded a 3-0 lead.

The elder Romero was 8-0 but coming off a rocky complete game last week in an 11-10 win over Albuquerque Rio Grande in the best-of-three series opener for the first round.

The pattern continued as his command of his pitches fluttered, and the Bears turned them into walks or hits. Three hits, two stolen bases and a walk produced three La Cueva runs in the second.

In the third, a porous defense aided Romero's descent. Shortstop Konrad Mueller led off the frame with a fielding error on Mitchell Garver's grounder.

After a walk and a groundout to first base, Demons second baseman A.J. Trujillo watched a sharp grounder slip out of his glove, allowing Garver and Ryan Padilla to score for 5-0.

Herbie Romero gave up a walk and an RBI single to Lamont that ended his Santa Fe High career.

"It was bad," Herbie Romero said. "They didn't get any hard hits, but we didn't make any plays and that's what it's going to come down to."

The younger Romero didn't fare much better. He gave up three hits and hit a batter. The defense made one more miscue when third baseman Ian Ferris let a grounder through his legs to bring Cody Voelker around to score for the 11-run cushion.

"Our whole mentality went down," Trujillo said. "When we get down, we have a hard time getting back up."

But the Demons showed signs of competent defense when they completed a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, then Mueller started another double play in the fourth. Yet it was the display of inconsistency that had been a problem all year.

The good news is that seven starters return, as do pitchers Roby Romero and Jerome Romero, who is not related to the brothers. Roby Romero likely will be the ace next year, given his 6-0 mark this year and a 2.52 ERA that was even better than Herbie Romero.

He credits his sibling for instilling toughness and craftiness in him at a young age.

"The reason why I am such a good pitcher is because Herbie used to hit off of me," Roby Romero said. "So I had to find ways to get around him."

The rest of the Demons have nine months to find their way around the stumbling blocks placed in front of them in the quarterfinals. That motivation also might have changed hands when one Romero permanently replaced another.