Softball: Centennial caps perfect 30-0 season with 5A crown; Silver again tops in 4A

Fernie Valles started his day Saturday with an ice cold shower.

“It was awful, man. The hotel was out of hot water,” the Centennial softball coach said.

The bucket of ice dumped on him Saturday afternoon after his No. 1 Centennial Hawks completed a perfect 30-0 season with a surprisingly dominant 10-1 win over No. 2 La Cueva (27-5) at the UNM Softball Complex couldn’t have felt any better.

Aaliyah Betancourt sent a laser shot into the left field bleachers in the first inning, a 2-run home run, that set the tone for the day.

“Their pitcher, (Liliana) Montoya, is really good and I knew she was trying to jam me — inside, inside, inside,” Betancourt said, referring to both Saturday’s at-bat and Friday’s 4-0 win over La Cueva in the double-elimination tournament.

“I knew what to expect there. She threw me that inside ball, so I opened up and I got it.”

Betancourt and senior pitcher Destiny Perez each had three RBIs in the win.

Centennial becomes the eighth New Mexico softball team to complete an undefeated season and the first since La Cueva went 28-0 in 2017.

The Bears, coached in 2017 and on Saturday by Ron Romero, clinched that 2017 perfect by beating Oñate, coached then by Valles.

“Yeah, I think they run-ruled us that day,” Valles said. “I can’t remember for sure, but I’m glad these girls were able to get this one before I retire.”

Valles said Saturday was his last high school game. Of course, he also told the Journal the same after last year’s championship win over Alamogordo.

“I’d love to have him back for one more, but I think he’s probably done this time,” said Addie Moccia, the Hawks’ junior centerfielder who hit .412 in five state playoff games including 10 RBIs, one homer and two doubles.

Perez proved to be kryptonite for La Cueva, allowing only one run scored in 14 innings pitched against the Bears on Friday and Saturday.

La Cueva, which averaged 11.5 runs per game this season, scored once on Saturday when Alex Fox drove in Genesis Jaramillo from third in the third inning.

“We just never got any timely hits,” Romero said. “And you’ve got to give them, and their pitcher, a ton of credit. That’s a really good team over there. …

“But I’m proud of our girls. I think we overachieved because we’re pretty young, and they played really well all year.”

Class 4A

Silver scored late and often in winning its 14th state softball championship on Saturday.

The top-seeded Fighting Colts scored all their runs in fifth inning and later en route to a 7-0 win over No. 3 Lovington (23-10).

For Jason Sanchez, the first year Silver head coach but longtime Little League and travel ball coach of the majority of the girls on the roster, it wasn’t a surprise.

“If you go look at our stats and our games, you look at the later innings, that’s where we score most of our runs,” Sanchez said. “We just keep putting pressure on the defense and the pitchers, and eventually the ball starts to find holes.”

Sure enough, the third time through the order this season has consistently proven deadly for the Colts (27-4).

In five state tournament games, Silver outscored opponents 44-4 — 10-2 in the first two innings and 34-2 after the second inning with the lineup turned over into its third rotation in four of those five games.

Star senior shortstop Maria Ruelaz, who will be staying home to play college ball at Western New Mexico, knew the drill when she led off the bottom of the fifth.

“I knew if I got on — if we could just get a few runners on, it was going to happen right then, that inning,” Ruelaz said. “I didn’t feel that way earlier (in the game).”

Ruelaz’s leadoff single later turned into the game’s first score on a wild pitch.

She added an RBI double in a four-run seventh. Senior pitcher Ariel Alvarado threw a shutout and went 2-for-4 with three RBIs at the plate.

The game wasn’t without controversy.

Down 3-0 in the top of the sixth, Lovington loaded the bases with no outs. A sharply hit Zabri Rodriguez grounder to Ruelaz that appeared to score the first run for the Wildcats was ruled runner obstruction.

Still, it was bases loaded with one out when a chaotic sequence on an Ariana Garcia bunt back to the pitcher ensued. The pitcher threw back to the catcher at home who then threw past first base and either one or two Lovington runners scored.

An umpire’s conference ruled there was an out at home and Garcia ran out of the base path on her way to first, resulting in an inning-ending double play in Lovington’s last real threat to score.

Centennial wins the Class 5A state softball championship against La Cueva