Hózhó Academy rallies past No. 3 seed Lordsburg, 12-11, in walk-off victory

GALLUP

A seventh inning rally by the Hózhó Academy Wolves put the Gallup charter school into the winner’s bracket of the New Mexico Class A/2A state softball playoffs.

The sixth-seeded Hózhó (23-5) squad trailed No. 3 Lordsburg (14-5) by three runs heading into the bottom of the seventh, but the Wolves plated four runs to eke out an emotional 12-11 on Wednesday night with freshman Mia Baca nailing the game-winning hit as she lined up a single along the third base line for the walk-off victory.

“We were actually down five runs in the first inning and we slowly chipped away and we tied it 8-8 for an inning or two,” Hózhó coach Ray Spencer said. “Coming into the seventh we made some little errors and (Lordsburg) scored three runs and we dug ourselves in a hole by giving up those extra runs.

“But in our huddle, I told the girls that we can do this, we can turn things around,” he added. “We just need to put the ball in play, be aggressive on the base and just put pressure on them.”

That pep talk seemed to do the trick as Hózhó owned the batter’s box as the Wolves came up with five key hits in their final at-bats.

Four of those hits came with two outs as Hózhó had its top of the lineup come up that ignited that rally. Eighth grader Iris Albert nailed a double that put teammate Mika Jai, who singled, at home. Next-at-bat, Hayden Tsosie kept the rally going with a run-scoring single.

Sophomore Nahliyah Morgan then came up with an RBI double to set up Baca’s game-winning hit.

“I got very emotional after Mia hit that single,” Spencer said. “I was so happy for the girls, and the girls were very emotional, too. They wanted to prove to themselves and around the state that we’re for real.

“We can play with anybody if we play to our potential,” he added.

The Wolves finished the contest with 22 hits with Albert going 5-for-5 with three RBIs. Baca, Jai and Lucia Edaakie added three hits each.

“Iris Albert and Mia Baca did a great job,” Spencer said. “They’re our two leading offensive players that we have. They stepped up and they just did their jobs.

“Of course, it was a team effort,” he added. “Nahliyah Morgan had that (double) and we needed that.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Spencer-coached team defeated No. 11 Jal 7-3 in an elimination game to set up its meeting with Lordsburg with junior ace Alysha Skeets pitching both games.

“Alysha did an awesome job,” Spencer said. “She was on point, but she did struggle in the first inning of the second game. They scored five runs on her and we finally adjusted to how they were swinging the bat and we capitalized on that.

“She shut them down for a couple of innings, but, of course, they hit the ball and we had our little errors,” he added. “But overall she did an awesome job and I was really pleased with her performance for both games.”

Hózhó moves into the next round playing No. 2 seed Loving on Thursday, May 15 at 9 a.m. at the Los Altos Field in Albuquerque.

This will be the Wolves second meeting with Loving as the two teams played in the Mesilla Valley Christian tournament earlier this year with Loving winning 14-3 on Apr. 4.

“Of course, Loving is the four-time defending state champion,” Spencer said. “They know how to play, they have great coaches. We just have to play our best to beat them.

“It can happen,” he added. “We have about a week to prepare for that game and as coaches we’re going to look over the video of that (earlier) game and pick out the good things and the bad things of the game. We’re going to prepare the team. That’s my job to prepare the team and we’ll see how we do.”

In the top half of the bracket, No. 4 seed Rehoboth Christian (18-9) takes on top seeded Estancia (26-2) at 9 a.m. next week. The Lady Lynx received a bye in the opening round before beating No. 13 Eunice by a 9-4 count on Wednesday.

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