Email
It isn’t often that this can be said about a baseball game and have it be the letter-perfect truth, but for the Eldorado Eagles on Wednesday afternoon, their game with Cibola literally became a walk in the park.
During one extremely unusual stretch in the bottom of the fifth inning against the visiting Cougars, the Eagles found themselves the recipients of six walks — five of them consecutively.
The last three of those came with the bases loaded.
Eldorado’s seven-run fifth — all with two outs — sent the Eagles to a 9-3 victory.
The game came down to this one fact: Cibola reliever Casey Peery lost the plate at a bad time.
“Really, in that situation, it’s his game to lose,” Cibola coach Ramon Gonzales said. “We’ve got to find a couple of pitchers at the varsity level that are able to do a job.”
It was hard not to feel for Peery, who threw 15 straight balls during one stretch in the fifth, according to one pitch chart.
He started the fifth with a 3-2 lead. He had thrown a solid fourth inning, striking out two batters.
And there were two outs in the fifth when Thomas Lee Mares doubled to deep left to score Cullen O’Dwyer. O’Dwyer had received a one-out free pass from Peery. Mares’ double tied the game 3-3.
After Mares, Peery completely lost the plate.
He walked Drew Anderson and Brandon Treadwell to load the bases, then walked Ambrose Romero and Matt Givens to score two additional runs for a 5-3 Eldorado lead.
He threw two balls to the next batter, Quentin Rhutasel, before Gonzales finally went and removed Peery. Rhutasel walked two pitches later; the walk is credited to Peery, who was high in the zone with virtually every single pitch for a period of about 10 minutes.
Another run scored on a fielding error, and O’Dwyer’s two-run single to right capped the seven-run outburst.
Eldorado’s seven runs came on just two hits.
Cibola starter Phil Trujillo went the first three, allowing just two runs on a two-RBI double by Mares in the third.
Gonzales, aware that District 1-5A play begins in two weeks and still looking for the pitching depth Cibola will need to navigate a tough league, wanted to get others some work. Which is why he made the switch to Peery even though Cibola led 3-2.
The Cougars got all their runs in the top of the third. J.J. Brown went down and slapped an 0-2 curveball to center, scoring Troy Mares and Jason Schoolcraft.
“That (pitch) was my one suggestion of the day,” Eldorado coach Jim Johns said. “We wanted to throw that pitch in the dirt.”
Schoolcraft had been hit by a pitch moments earlier with the bases loaded, scoring Kyle Olsen with the game’s first run.
Cibola (6-6) has nondistrict games remaining with La Cueva, Sandia and Valley before 1-5A play begins.
“We’re progressing in the right direction,” Gonzales said. “But we’ve got to be more consistent. We’re not that young team anymore.”
— This article appeared on page 4 of the West Side Journal
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at jyodice@abqjournal.com.
