By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Lady Tigers hosted the Capital Lady Jaguars for their home opener and as well as their first game of the 2023 softball season.
The Lady Tigers first game with Tucumcari was cancelled by Tucumcari leaving the Lady Tigers without a game on Saturday but managed to find a team to practice with from Pueblo. Capital a District 5 5A school came into the game with a 2-2 record having played four games with Raton showing 0-0 for their record.
Game one started out with a round of hits and runners making their way around the diamond before the Lady Tigers could find a third out. Freshmen pitcher Hayden Middlebrook was on the stripe for Raton and struggled with the Lady Jaguar batters. Capital’s senior pitcher Athena Grimley had K-soup striking out 13 Raton batters and allowing only four hits one of which was an infield home run by Samantha Phillips after Giana Marez on base by a wild pitch to give Raton two runs on the board.
By the end of the first game of the double header Raton added one more run to the scoreboard while Capital had totaled up 19 runs.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 6 | – | – | 19 | – | – |
| Raton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | – | – | 3 | – | – |
Game two of the double header saw Raton score in three of the first four innings creating a 9-12 ball game at the end of the fourth. Inning five Raton allowed two runs and after that the flood gates opened up and Capital took the win with a 10 run streak. Samantha Phillips began the game on the mound with Giana Marez coming in during the sixth inning to finish off the game.
Raton managed to make it through the second game of the double header with only four strikeouts as did the Lady Jaguars.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | 2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 10 | – | 24 | – | – |
| Raton | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – | 9 | – | – |
