2A-4A baseball roundup: Artesia finds redemption with state title win

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect NMMI baseball's previous state title wins.

Remember last season’s 4A boys state title game? When Artesia took Grants to extra innings after trailing for virtually the entire game?

That it was Bulldogs third baseman Jack Byers who smacked a ball to center field in the final frame, a hit that likely would’ve brought in two runs and tied the game? But instead of dropping into an open patch of grass, center fielder Boudy Melonas made a diving catch to seal the Pirates’ elusive first state title?

And Artesia, the blue trophy almost within its grasp, instead walked away with a red trophy?

“You get that salty taste in your mouth after taking the second place title,” Bulldogs junior Jett Whitmire told the Journal on Saturday. “It took all year for us to work back and just go for the blue — that was our motto this year. Go for the blue.

“And we didn’t stop until we got it.”

Redemption — and, yes, a long-coveted blue trophy — belongs to the Bulldogs. Artesia never trailed Saturday as they downed Bloomfield 6-3 in the 4A baseball final, clinching the program’s first state title in 25 years at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Sports Complex.

Whitmire led the top-seeded Bulldogs (25-6) at the plate with three hits, including an RBI triple that got his team on the board in the second inning. Despite Bloomfield making some early contact off starting pitcher Diego Morales, Artesia left the third with a 3-0 lead and a clear path to the program’s seventh overall title.

But the sixth-seeded Bobcats had their say: Bloomfield tuned up Morales for four consecutive hits in the fourth, tying the game off designated hitter Johnny Yates’ two-run double. A brief mound conference ended with the junior pitcher still in with no outs, a simple message running through his head.

“I just had to settle down and come to the realization that they’re only getting hits because I’m missing my spots,” Morales told the Journal, “and then just relax, get some more confidence and just start hitting my spots.”

Which he did. Morales got out of the inning and went on to put Bloomfield down in order in the top of the fifth. The Bulldogs then rewarded him with three runs off six hits in the bottom of the inning, and holding a 6-3 lead Artesia pulled its starter for Charlie Campbell entering the seventh.

Whatever hope Bloomfield had left faded quickly. Campbell — the driving force behind Artesia’s 4A state basketball title earlier this year — struck out the side, catching Trae Woods’ swinging for the final out. Hats and gloves started flying as the Bulldogs rushed the field immediately for a celebration 25 years in the making.

And like that, a year of sitting with that red trophy was mercifully over.

“It definitely makes it sweeter,” Artesia head coach Jackson Bickel told the Journal. “I mean, you think about that for a whole year — and even farther back because that was their goal last year. This year, seeing them do it, it’s just incredible.”

Class 3A

New Mexico Military Institute beat Robertson 7-1 Saturday to win the 3A championship, securing the Colts’ second baseball title in the last four years.

Nicolas Barcela Teran led NMMI (22-6) at the plate with three hits and three RBIs. Starting pitcher Tegin Maloney held the Cardinals to one run off four hits as the top-seeded Colts denied No. 3 Robertson’s pursuit of back-to-back state titles.

Class 2A

Santa Rosa beat Loving 7-6 in Saturday’s 2A title game.

After trailing 5-1 with two innings left, the second-seeded Lions (22-3) posted six runs in the sixth inning to surge from behind to beat the No. 5 Falcons and claim their first state championship since 1981.