In the NM AAA Semifinal baseball game, #7 Raton led #3 NMMI with only six outs left and looked like a sure bet to make the championship game. But nothing, especially in baseball, is guaranteed, and on Friday the 13th, the Colts sent 13 to the plate in the sixth inning to erase a six run deficit and would go on to an 11-9 victory and the eventual state championship.
Mirroring the quarterfinal game against Sandia Prep on Thursday, the game was a deja vu moment for Raton as NMMI scored two in the bottom of the first. The Colts hit starter Chance Middlebrook hard for three hits in the first, but Raton’s Trea Ortega snuffed out the threat by gunning down Miguel Rivera for the third out.
Raton would get one back in the second as Dylan Quartieri slapped a lead-off single and would come around to score on a GB Oliver single. But the Tigers left two stranded as Colts starter Tegin Maloney snuffed out the threat with two K’s of his eventual 10.
Raton starter Chance Middlebrook, walked the lead-off batter in the second and he would eventually score to give the Colts a 3 to 1 lead. Middlebrook, though, was the catalyst for the Raton offense going into the 3rd inning, as the senior had a lead off double and he and Trea Ortega were brought home on a Matt Quartieri gapper. Dylan Quartieri was seeing the ball well all night, and went four-for-four including the RBI single to give Raton the 4-3 lead.
Middlebrook then went to work on the mound throwing three straight one-two-three innings including striking out the side in the third.
Raton would add three in the fifth and two in the sixth and led 9-3 with six outs left. But in the sixth, the wheels started to come off. Raton pitching issued seven walks and Colts hitting getting a couple of seeing-eye singles, coupled with Raton’s only error of the game, and it turned it into a snowman inning for the Colts, which would have them leading 11-9 and Raton down to its last three outs.
In the seventh, a ground out and a strikeout, had Raton’s Will Berry up with Raton’s last chance and the senior hit a shot that went to the wall, but he was thrown out at third trying to stretch it out.
Raton ended the season at 12-13, but eliminated the defending champ and #2 seed Sandia Prep, in the quarter finals and took #3 NMMI to the limit before the Colts went on to win and took the momentum to the Championship game for the 2022 Championship Trophy.
Raton will lose seven seniors this year; Will Berry, Jesse Kelley, Chance Middlebrook, Dre Nash, Trea Ortega, Dylan Quarteri and Matthew Quartieri.
