The Raton Tiger baseball team completed a day of upsets in the quarterfinals of the NM AAA Baseball Tournament by outlasting the defending champion Sandia Prep Sun Devils 4-3 to earn a semifinal berth against NMMI on Friday.
The last game of the day saw Raton load the bases in the first, only to have Sandia’s Cameron Motola get out of the jam by notching all three outs through strikeouts.
Sandia would score two in the bottom of the first off of Raton starter Dylan Quartieri when Chris Andrick hit a two out double deep to right field to plate two, but was stranded when Quartieri struck out the next batter.
Raton would answer right back in the second when catcher Trea Ortega stroked a single, to bring in a pair, followed by Matt Quartieri’s single which scored Chance Middlebrook. It looked like Raton was going to get even more, but Sandia’s Lucas Lemons stole a hit away from Dylan Quartieri on a line shot and turned it into a double play.
Raton had a tight grip on the one run lead with the help of Dylan Quartieri’s pitching and Ortega’s catching. One of seven Seniors on the Raton squad, Ortega gunned down two would-be thiefs and change the momentum.
Raton loaded the bases again in the fifth, started by Matt Quartieri’s lead-off single. Matt would score Raton’s fourth run, but three runners would be stranded by Estevan Ortega of Sandia.
Sandia Prep got one back in the fifth when Lucas Lemons slapped a triple down the fist base line and then scored on a Santiago Cooper hit. Cooper was gunned down by Raton’s Trea Ortega, trying to steal second and despite four hits in the inning and a walk issued by Dylan Quartieri, that loaded the bases, the senior, reached back and found a little more reserve to get his sixth strikeout and end the threat with no crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
Matt Quartieri would come on in relief in the sixth and had some control issues at first. He issued three walks in the inning, and the bases were loaded before he found the mark by striking out the number two and number four hitters in the lineup.
Quartieri would silence all doubters in the seventh, when he struck out the side to give Raton their win and a berth in the semis against NMMI which also won earlier by the same 4-3 score over Cobre.
Earlier in the day, the number 1 seed St/Mikes Horsemen went down to defeat by #8 Santa Fe Indian School 8-5 and #4 Las Vegas Robertson was beaten in five innings 16-2 to East Mountain.
NMMI at #3 is the highest seed remaining in the tournament, and will play against #7 Raton on Frdiay, May 13 at 7 pm at Rio Rancho High School.
