Catching the once-hot Aztec Tigers in a four-game slide, the surging Bayfield Wolverines were unable to book their sixth straight victory Tuesday at home. Aztec, which had won four straight before their recent struggles, took control early and left the Pine River Valley with a 9-2 win.
“We were flat. And when you get beat like that, you’ve just got to hand it to the other team. They slapped us around today,” said BHS head coach Bert Miller. “No excuses for us missing players; we had players on the field that were plenty capable of playing, and we didn’t … do what we needed to do.”
“We’ve been real good about putting pressure on early, and then we’d kind of lose that,” said first-year Aztec skipper Eli Wyatt. “And we did that on both sides.”
Only a couple of Isaac Ross deliveries after Tigers leadoff hitter Kale Watson ripped the interstate showdown’s first pitch at shortstop Caden Wood – whose throw to Noah Chamblee was in time to retire Watson – AHS got on the scoreboard when No. 2 hitter Ryan Ray lifted a hanging breaking ball into the gusts going toward right-centerfield, and over the fence for a solo homer.
And though Wolverines leadoff man Nic Twedt countered in the bottom of the first by welcoming Ray to the mound with a triple to center, Aztec’s senior righty promptly picked him off, with Watson making a diving tag from behind as Twedt (3-4, R, RBI) desperately dashed for the plate.
Ray (W; 5 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, HB, 10 K) wouldn’t really make another mistake again until Twedt crashed a two-out solo homer to right in the bottom of the fifth. The homer clipped Aztec’s lead to 7-1, which had grown with senior catcher Elijah Wyatt’s two-run shot in the third and Ray’s RBI-triple in the fourth.
“I’d started on the mound in our loss against Santa Fe,” said Ray, recalling his previous outing on the 12th. “And I don’t know, everything felt good. My arm felt great – I was sick just a couple days ago.”
“I thought their pitcher performed spectacularly. Starting off, we couldn’t touch him,” Miller said. “Nic had three hits today, swung the bat well, but that curve ball they were throwing to us … we couldn’t seem to recognize it and it got a lot of outs, lot of strikeouts.”
Ross (4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) took the loss for BHS, with Ethan Candelaria (3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K) logging extended time on the mound with Lance Mazur and Jackson Queen both unavailable. Tigers first baseman Jacob Johnson (4 H, R, 0 BB, 3 K) stood on the hill for the last two innings in relief of Ray.
Offensively, Ray went 2-for-3 and walked twice, scored once and plated two. Wyatt was 2-4 with a walk, run and two RBIs, and Watson ended up 2-5 with two runs. Second baseman Sylas Hengst was 2-3 with a sacrifice bunt, run and an RBI, and Kaleb Thornburg went 2-4 with a run and two RBIs.
For the Wolverines (5-2, 0-0 3A Intermountain), Chamblee went 1-4 with a sixth-inning double. Candelaria went 1-3 with a seventh-inning single – leading to courtesy runner Noah Martin scoring BHS’ second run when Wood shot a bases-loaded, two-out grounder to Watson who, rather than stepping on his bag to retire Dante Candelaria, elected to throw all the way across the diamond in hopes of getting Wood at first base but inexplicably pulled a repositioned Elijah Wyatt off the bag.
Aztec (7-5, 0-0 NMAA District 1-4A) will next play Thursday in Santa Fe against 5A Capital (5-6).
“We made the routine plays today; that really makes a successful team, so we’re going to go back to the grind,” Eli Wyatt said. “Our team has been grinding and putting in a lot of work, and we’re going to continue to do that. We’re looking forward to Thursday, then rolling into Saturday with Hope at home!”
Elevated not only into the top 10 for the first time this spring, but all the way up to No. 6 in Monday’s week-starting CHSAANow.com Class 3A poll after recording three single-digit wins and earning a share of first place at 3A Delta’s multisite March 17-19 Luke Oeltjenbruns Memorial Tournament, the Wolverines will look to refocus at La Junta’s two-site, eight-team Hampton Inn Tiger Baseball Classic, March 24-26.
Their first game, set for 10:30 a.m. Friday at Potter Park, will be against 2A Dolores Huerta Prep of Pueblo.
“La Junta should be cool,” Miller said. “If we win that first game, maybe we’ll play against Fort Morgan — they’re a ranked 4A team — and it’ll be fun. We’ll come back.”
The 4A poll’s top ‘Others Receiving Votes’ team, Fort Morgan will face La Junta at 6 p.m. on Thursday. The winner will meet either Bayfield or Dolores Huerta at 3:30 p.m. Friday while the Fort Morgan-La Junta loser will play the Wolverines or Scorpions at 1 p.m. Day 3 play will begin at 11 a.m. with the third-place game at Potter and the seventh-place contest at Swink.
