Baseball and softball regular seasons end; playoffs ahead

The calendar has flipped to May, and with it brings the end of the regular season for high school baseball and softball. For some teams, the season still rolls on with the postseason coming up this weekend.

On the baseball side, all three schools landed their team in the playoffs beginning this week.

In Los Lunas, the Tigers finished the season with a split of a double-header against Albuquerque High, giving them an overall record of 17-9 and 8-2 in district.

The Tigers finished second in the district this season, finishing one game behind Rio Grande, and they still heard their name selected on Sunday for the 5A playoffs as a 13-seed.

Los Lunas will play a best of three series with Organ Mountain beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday in Las Cruces. Game two will be Saturday morning and, if needed, game three will be 20 minutes following game two.

For the Valencia Jaguars, an at-large bid was a welcoming sight on Sunday.

Following a three-game losing streak to end the season at a record of 9-14 and 2-6 in district, the Jaguars were selected as the 14-seed in the 4A playoffs.

Valencia will take on the 3-seed Los Alamos in a best of three series. Game one is at 5 p.m. on Friday. Game two will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday and, if needed, game three will be 20 minutes after game two.

For the Belen Eagles, a late season four-game winning streak was ended with a loss to Grants in the season finale.

Belen still finished 13-9 overall and 5-3 in district, good enough to draw a 9-seed for the 4A playoffs.

Belen will take on the 8-seed Valley Vikings in the first round of the playoffs. The best of three series will start at 4 p.m. on Friday at Valley High School.

Over in softball, the Belen Lady Eagles ended the season with a 22-0 win over Grants to push their record to 15-11 overall and 6-2 in district play, which was good enough for a second-place finish.

Belen then drew a 10-seed for the 4A playoffs and will take on the 7-seed Aztec in the opening game.

That contest will be held 10 a.m. on Saturday at Aztec High School. The game is only a single one, if the Eagles win they will advance to round two; with a loss Belen will end up in the consolation bracket.

The Valencia Lady Jaguars ended their season with a 19-2 win over Grants.

That brought their record to 7-17 overall and 4-4 in district. Valencia did not get an invite to the playoffs.

For the Los Lunas Lady Tigers, they split a double-header with Albuquerque High on Saturday to end the season.

Following that, the Lady Tigers finished 10-15 overall and 5-5 in district. Los Lunas also did not receive an invite to the state playoffs this season.

Results of the opening round of the State Playoffs will be available in next week’s sports page.