Patriots embrace bracket-buster role

RIO RANCHO, N.M.

No one saw this coming, but the Miyamura Patriots played bracket busters for the Class 4A state playoffs.

As the tournament’s No. 11 seed, the Patriots knocked off No. 6 seed Santa Teresa in a three-game series two weeks ago.

Miyamura was hoping to continue its Cinderella run, but they ran into a good Los Alamos team on Thursday as the third-seeded Hilltoppers shut out the Patriots 8-0 in the state quarterfinals at Rio Rancho High.

“We started off the season real cold,” first-year Miyamura coach Emilio Griego said of their 2-10 start.

“We could have just packed our bags and gave up on the season, but when district came around we went 8-2,” he said. “We took that momentum into the playoffs and made it here to the second round.”

The Hilltoppers opened the game with a two-run slam from senior Grant Watkins on a 1-1 pitch.

After two scoreless innings, Los Alamos put across five runs in the bottom of the fourth to put the game out of reach behind three hits.

“Baseball is a momentum game,” Griego said. “Once they opened up the game in that inning, it shifted their way and they just kept the pedal to the metal.”

In that third frame, Miyamura issued five walks between starting pitcher Jaimeer Beyale and reliever Tee-Jay Jimenez.

“Jaimeer did good the first three innings and then the third time around the lineup those guys started to barrel the ball,” Griego said of the Hilltoppers. “They’ve seen him enough times to know what he has, so at that point we had to go to Tee-Jay who has been really good for us.

“He did well, last weekend in Santa Teresa,” he said, “and today it just wasn’t his day.”

Los Alamos added one more run in the fifth as they finished the contest with nine hits.

For Miyamura, they recorded three hits with shortstop Mathias Rodriguez getting a double while Beyale and designated hitter Damian Cano added a pair of singles.

The Patriots registered two of those hits in the top of the third with Rodriquez leading off. Next-at-bat, Isaiah Martinez grounded to third and he got on with a fielder’s choice, as Rodriquez was tagged out at third.

Beyale then hit a single to advance Martinez but Los Alamos ended that threat by logging in a 6-4 double play.

“We had people moving, but we ran ourselves into outs,” Griego said. “We had Mathias run into third on a ground out, and then we had a hit-and-run that gets popped up and they doubled us up.

“It was one of those momentum shifts in which we helped them out,” he added.

Miyamura will graduate six seniors, but Griego believes the Patriots can be a playoff team next year.

“We had a lot of key juniors that were really good for us this year,” he said. “The team will have a good core and they’ll be hungry for more.”

Those juniors include Oscar Flores Jr., Isaiah Martinez, Jaimeer Beyale, Dominick Ward, and Dillon Landavazo.

As for Griego, he is set to join the coaching staff at Organ Mountain in Las Cruces next season.

“They have to find another coach to take things over, but the players are there,” he said. “It’s a good team coming back.”

Originally from Yuma, Arizona, Griego moved to Gallup in 2018 and he served as an assistant coach at Rehoboth Christian School for two seasons before taking over the Miyamura program while serving for the New Mexico State Police Department.

This past season, Organ Mountain finished the season at 25-5 overall, getting as far as the second round in the 5A bracket under longtime coach Alan Edmonson.

“The head coach has about two years left before retirement and hopefully I’ll take over the reins,” he said.

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