By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
The Lady Tigers hosted the Tucumcari Lady Rattlers for Raton’s season opener after the first scheduled game with McCurdy on March 4th was cancelled.
The Lady Tigers started the game with young and inexperienced girls at key positions with Lefty Sophomore Samantha Phillips at pitcher and 8th grader Addison Medina at catcher. The team is waiting on older players to get enough practice in to play as basketball was late and some girls went on to an FCCLA function.
Tucumcari took the lead 4-0 in the first as the girls struggled on defense and then went five and out with one run to finish off the inning. Raton managed to hold Tucumcari scoreless until the fourth inning while rounding seven players in the second for an 8-4 lead. In the fourth Tucumcari had three players round the bases making it a 8-7 ball game.
The sixth inning was a barn burner as both teams racked up the points. Tucumcari loaded the bases on balls and brought two players on in for scores with bases on balls. By the end of the top of the inning Tucumcari lead 12-8. Yet another Raton seven run rally took the lead back and gave Raton an 15-12 lead. Tucumcari would add one more run to the scoreboard as the Raton defense stiffened and held on to a 15-13 lead to end the game.
Tucumcari 4 0 0 3 0 5 1 13
Raton 1 7 0 0 0 7 0 15
