By Billy Donati and Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Raton Tigers baseball team hosted Navajo Prep in a first round playoff game in the 3A NM State Tournament and got a solid pitching performance from Trea Ortega combined with a big seven run fourth inning to cruise to a 10-0 victory in five innings.
Played in near-perfect weather on Friday, May 6 with warm temps and very little wind, the seventh seed Tigers defense led by Ortega’s one hit shutout, waited till the fourth inning for the offense to start churning. When it did get going, it sent 12 to the plate and seven of them scored.
Ortega helped his own cause with an RBI double in the first inning and the Tigers held on to that narrow lead until the fourth inning explosion when Raton loaded the bases with no outs. First baseman Will Berry lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score the innings first run and then the majority of damage was done with two outs as the Tigers notched seven of their 11 total hits in the inning.
Ortega had three innings of three up and three down, but got into a jam in the fourth, when he beaned three batters and had bases loaded. He had help from Chance Middlebrook as the Raton catcher gunned down an attempted steal at second earlier in the inning and then Ortega got a ground ball out to Raton shortstop Matthew Quartieri to end the threat and keep the shutout intact.
Raton continued the winning streak into game two of the series scoring in every inning, of which they only needed five to make it a 10 run ruled game, winning 16 – 2.
Raton made another big inning scoring rally in the fourth sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring eight. The inning started with a single home run over the left field fence by Jacob Mattorano. Three batters were struck by wild pitches helping to keep the bases loaded to eventually score the eight runs.
Raton allowed two runs in the first inning under pitcher Dylan Quartieri before he got control of the ball and finished off the inning. Chance Middlebrook was brought in by Matt Quartieri who sent one sailing over the right field fence, his third this year. During game one Matt found first base on balls and one HBP to keep his long ball threat to a minimum.
Jacob Mattorano started the scoring in the third inning with a fly ball into left field followed by a fly ball in center field by GB Oliver. Azden Romero loaded the bases when he was hit by a wild pitch from Daniel Yazzie. Dre Nash sent Mattorano home after a base on balls. Chance Middlebrook and Trea Ortega RBIed the base runners for four runs in the third.
Raton pitchers were solid with only one base on balls as well as only one strikeout until the fifth inning when batters were called off the bench and Matthew Quartieri finishing off the game made the Ks. Most outs for both teams were made on throws for outs after short hits.
Raton’s seven seniors were honored before the game, as Will Berry, Jesse Kelley, Chance Middlebrook, Dre Nash, Trea Ortega, Dylan Quartieri and Matthew Quartieri will all graduate at the end of the year.
Raton earned a quarterfinal matchup with #2 seed Sandia Prep on Thursday, May 12 at 7 pm at Cleveland High School Field in Rio Rancho.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navajo Prep | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Raton | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | – | – | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navajo Prep | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Raton | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 | – | – | – | 16 | 14 | 0 |
