Weekend Shutouts move teams on in State Tourney

Picture perfect weather Friday evening only made it that much more enjoyable as the Tigers took off in the second inning and over the next three innings made it look easy as they shut out the Shiprock Warriors 10-0 in five innings.

That was the first of a best of three in the first round of state tourney playoff action. Game two action started Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. to another great day. Again the boys started connecting while the Raton pitchers did their job. During Friday's game Blake Washburn racked up 10 strikeouts and Saturday morning Cam Baird followed with several of his own strikeouts.

Saturday's game took six innings but the Tigers did it once again with a 10-0 shut out while at the other end of the Raton sports complex the Lady Tigers walloped the softball for eight runs in the first inning against the Hatch Valley Lady Bears. The Lady Bears starting pitcher Rebecca Hays helped out the Lady Tigers with walks and she struck two batters for two scores in the inning. The next two innings were slow defensive battles then the Lady Tigers bats connected again this time for seven runs to end the game 15-0 in four innings.

The wins move both teams on to Rio Rancho for second round action. The girls will be at Rio Rancho field 3 Thursday at 10:00 a.m. where they will play West Las Vegas Lady Dons who have beat Raton three times in the regular season.

The boys will play Cobre at noon Thursday at Volcano Vista High School. 

Mayor Charles Starkovich throws out the first pitch to start the ball game Friday afternoon.

Its a picture perfect bunt except the umpire called Blake Washburn out as he stepped out of the batter's box

Safe at home!! Dylan Query slides in safe as the Shiprock pitcher can't hang on to the ball Friday afternoon at Gabrielle Field

Brackets for the state tourney can be accessed at the NMAA Web page:  for the boys   http://www.nmact.org/baseball_brackets/     
for the girls its http://www.nmact.org/   then click on the link to the PDF Files for the brackets.

Raton golf scores District Titles

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

What a beautiful chamber of commerce spring day it was as Raton hosted the District 2AAA golf tourney and when it was ll over and the scores were tallied it was the Raton Golf teams that came out on top to earn the district title.

Both Coach David Swanson and Joseph Quintana were chosen the coaches of the year for District 2AAA.

While most of the players struggled a little during the day Breanna Pais took third in the girls rankings overall and placed first in the Raton team scoring with a 92. Kevin Fissel scored a 3rd place overall with Dephen Chavez taking 4th. Both Kevin and Dephen were tied and it took scores from the third tie breaker hole score before Kevin finally took third.

Raton will be sending Johnathan Ford and Megan Holland to the state tourney next week as well as the girls team who barely qualified for state with a team score of 400 just under the 408 required for state qualification. The boys who scored a 341 were over the 21 strokes over the 320 that they needed to go to state as a team.

Congratulations Raton Golf and Coaches!!!!

The Raton girls get the before tourney briefing

Coach David Swanson gives the teams the before tourney briefing

Brianna Pais takes a look and prepares to make one of the puts that helped her score a 92 which gave her the best team score and individually gave her a 3rd place tourney finish

Coach Joseph Quintana strategizes with Kevin Fissel on the #9 green 

its a jump for joy after Taylor Hull made about a 100 foot chip shot that went in the hole to give her a par on Number 3

Megan Holland who has qualified for State works the long put on #3 green

Johnathan Ford sinks the put on #9 Green. Ford has also qualified for the State tourney

The score sheets for the District 2AAA Tourney

The banners tell it all Raton Golf has the District Title

Johnathan Ford signs the District Banner, it's a welcome treat for the RHS Senior

Game 1 

Portales 6

Raton 0

Game 2 

Portales 5

Raton 0

Lady Tigers finish home season with goose eggs.

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

The Lady Tigers hosted one of the best teams in AAA softball Monday afternoon in the Portales Lady Rams and came up not just on the short end but posted goose eggs on the score board.

The Ladies were making contact with the ball and sending it sailing only to see it land safely in the glove of a Lady Ram. This not only happened in the first game of the double header but the second one too. 

The Lady Tigers also put up a good defense but all it took was a walk or a single that fell just short of an Lady Tiger outfielder. The Portales base runners played the ball smartly and didn't take the chances that could have lead to an out. 

The Lady Tigers will play West on Tuesday and Robertson in a double header on Saturday the 28th.

Seniors Pat Romero, Breanna Schutte, Sara Ortiz, Maggie Honeyfield were honored at the last home game of the season for the Lady Tigers Monday afternoon.

The bats made contact just like this one for Brylee Medina but it seems the ball always fell into a Lady Ram glove during both games Monday afternoon 

Conference at the mound as Coach Tina Dorrance talks to pitcher Shania Dorrance and Catcher Kalista Dorrance  Monday afternoon during a time when Shania was in a pitching slump

A Lady Ram just makes it back to 1st base as Sara Ortiz goes for the tag Monday afternoon 

Shania Dorrance makes contact only to be thrown out at first as happened often during the double header Monday afternoon against the Portales Lady Rams

Girls 

Game 1 

Taos 1

Raton 13

Game 2 

Taos 4

Raton 19

Boys 

Game 1

Taos 3

Raton 2

Game 2 

Taos 8

Raton 3

It was a long day for the Raton Tigers as Taos made plays like this one work for them as a Taos Tiger slides into 3rd base safe as the ball gets away from Cam Baird

Dylan Aragon makes the play at 2nd as he tags Noah Romero

Troy Hall goes for the tag at 2nd base Saturday afternoon at Gabrielle Field

Pitcher George Marquez a half a step ahead of Noah Romero going to 1st base for the out.

Lady Tigers drop two while Tigers take two

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

It was double header day in Raton as both the girls and boys hosted the West Las Vegas Lady Dons and Dons on a cool and windy Friday afternoon.

The Lady Tigers didn't have problem making contact with the ball it was keeping the ball away from a Lady Don. Several hits in the first game took off and looked good but a Lady Don seemed to always be under the ball. 

The Lady Dons too made contact yet several of their balls fell just out side the reach of the Lady Tiger gloves. In game one a late rally fell short leaving the ladies with a district loss. Game two followed a similar theme yet saw Raton take an early lead yet unable to hold on. By the end of the game Raton was short by five. 

The Raton boys however completed a shut out in game one and pulled out a squeaker in game two. The Dons took the early lead in game two and and a two run rally in the third tied it. Raton again took the lead in the fifth with the Dons coming back and taking the lead in the sixth.

Raton ties it and in the seventh Troy Hall gets a single into left field to bring Dylan Aragon in for the win.

Both teams will host Robertson on Tuesday and host Taos on Saturday for another double header.

Girls 

WLV 7

Raton 5

WLV 13

Raton 8

Boys 

WLV 0

Raton 5

WLV 4

Raton 5

Sara Ortiz makes contact Friday afternoon at JimWade Field as the Lady Tigers hosted the Lady Dons in a double header

Safe at home is Breannon Trujillo as she gets in under the tag

Let's start a rally was the battle cry late in the game as the Lady Tigers trailed WLV  in game 1 of a double header

Maggie Honeyfield takes to the dirt at third as the ball goes toward 1st base.

Blake Washburn tries to make it safe at third during the second game of a double header with West Las Vegas

The call was out at third as Blake Washburn slides into third in a cloud of dust.

The ball stalls out in the dirt as the as WLV Don Adrian Vladez steals second

Easily out at second is Jose Juan Montano during the second game of the double header in Raton Friday afternoon.

Lady Tigers split double header

By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media

The Lady Tigers hosted class AAAA Santa Fe High Lady demons at Jim Wade field Friday afternoon for a double header.

Game one turned out to be a big win for the Lady Tigers as they started out with a five run inning and followed that with an eight run rally in the third. The Lady Tigers held Santa Fe High to only five runs three in the second and two in the third.

In the bottom of the fifth the Lady Tigers added another two runs and ended the game in the fifth under the 10 run rule.

Game two however was a different story as the the Lady Demons took the early lead and followed it up with a five run rally. With a 6-2 lead and strong defense until the fourth where Raton pulled out a four run rally to come within one at 6-7.

But it wasn't over yet. It was 8-6 Lady Demons going into the seventh where a strong defense by the Lady Tigers held the bats at bay and no runs. The Lady Tigers then put one around the bases but just couldn't quite get any one else to home plate leaving the score 8-7 Lady Demons with the win for game two.

Santa Fe  0. 3. 2.  0. 0.  5
Raton 5. 0. 8.  0. 3.       15

Santa Fe. 1. 0. 5. 1. 1. 0. 8
Raton 1. 0. 1. 4. 0. 1.      7

Out at home is Lady Demon Jackie Martinez as she slides home during the game Friday afternoon at Jim Wade Field

Is she safe??

Maybe she is maybe she isn't the call was out at first

Raton pulls out win

By Marty Mayfield

KRTN Multi-Media

What a different ball game Thursday afternoon at Gabrielle Field. Raton played the Miners for the second game of the season in Raton instead of Trinidad.

A foot of snow early in the week forced the game to be moved to Raton Thursday afternoon where the Tigers pulled out a squeaker. A game that was much closer and quieter than the game last week where Trinidad had a 10 point lead in the first inning after three home runs.

Today's game saw the defense come to play and hold the Miners to zero runs in the first inning and only scoring one run in the following three innings leaving the score tied at three after four innings. Trinidad would only score two more runs and leaving the bases loaded in the sixth. 

Raton had the last tada with two runs in the top of the seventh and some close calls in the bottom of the seventh to save the game. 

Raton  0  0  0  3  2  0  2     7

Trinidad 0  1  1  1  0  2  0  5

Safe at Second, Blake Washburn beats the ball for the stolen base Thursday afternoon. The game with Trinidad was originally scheduled to be played in Trinidad but a foot of snow moved the game to Raton.

Raton Pitcher Blake Washburn attempts to pickoff the base runner early in the game thursday afternoon.

DEE BOSS!!!

George Marquez sends this one over the fence for a 1 run homer.

Is he safe?? 

That he is as the Miner catcher leaves the ball in front of the plate as Ethan Washburn slides safely across the plate for another Raton run.

Raton catcher Seth Parker makes the play at home plate Thursday afternoon.