Saturday, March 29, 2008

Tigers can't get out of own way against Bears

District play starts Thursday vs. Manzano

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas Most of the publicity in New Mexico this week surrounding a team with a coach named Doyle was about West Las Vegas boys basketball. Its coach, Hamilton Doyle, resigned amid conflicts with parents, but it was James Doyle, Hamilton's brother, and his Los Lunas Tiger baseball team that tried to make headlines Thursday.

The Tigers came up short in their upset bid of the La Cueva Bears, falling 10-5 in a game filled with as many LLHS mistakes as La Cueva prowess. It was the Tigers' next-to-last tune-up for District 5-5A play, as they travel to Del Norte on Saturday for a 10 a.m. game.

Los Lunas opens District 5-5A play on Thursday by hosting Manzano in a 4 p.m. game.

"We can't figure it out," said Doyle of the inconsistent defense of his Tigers. "One day, we'll play error-free, the next day, we'll make five errors."

The Tigers (6-7) only made two errors Thursday against the perennially tough Bears, but mental mistakes led to extending several La Cueva innings.

Needing to get outs behind starting pitcher Nick Romero (0-3), the Tigers couldn't make some of the routine plays once Romero got the fly balls or ground balls that usually lead to outs.

La Cueva jumped on Romero in the top of the first. An infield hit that could have been an out and a single set the table for Mitchell Garver, who slammed Romero's second offering over the 385-foot sign in left center field for a 3-0 La Cueva lead.

Jimmy Gonzales scored in the bottom of the first to pull the Tigers to within 3-1, but La Cueva, winners of four straight Class 5A state titles from 2003 to 2006, scored two runs each in the second and third innings to lead 7-1.

Doyle said his team could have rolled over at that point, but it was a positive sign that the Tigers fought back.

LLHS got a double steal by Pat Ryan and JP Parra for one of their three runs in the third inning to close the gap to 7-4. La Cueva made three errors in that inning.

"Even the umpires I talked to after the game said they thought we were going to play dead once we fell behind, but we didn't," said Doyle.

Romero set the Bears down in order in the fourth and fifth innings and gave up a run in the sixth before yielding to Reuben Romero, who gave up two runs in the top of the seventh to make the score 10-4.

Gonzales scored the Tigers' final run in the bottom of the seventh as Parra grounded into a well-turned double play.

In a doubleheader last year at La Cueva, the Tigers were hammered 19-9 in the opener, but took the second game to the 11th inning before losing 4-3.

"We looked good on the mound and defensively — at times," said Doyle. "I thought Nick pitched a good game, he just hasn't gotten the defense behind him in his starts."

Doyle said Marcus Mansfield (2-1) will get the nod Saturday against Class 4A Del Norte. The Tigers' next opponent, Manzano, has had somewhat similar results as LLHS against common opponents.

The Monarchs pounded West Mesa and lost to Sandia, and lost 10-2 to La Cueva.

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