Rehoboth Christian Lynx earn bye to state quarterfinals

WINDOW ROCK

With a 20-1 record, the Rehoboth Christian baseball team earned the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A bracket, which the New Mexico Activities Association released on Sunday afternoon.

The Lynx have earned a bye into the state quarterfinals, and they will take on the survivor between seventh seed McCurdy and No. 10 Texico, as that game was played on Wednesday afternoon.

The outcome of that contest was not posted as the paper went to press. The winner of that match will play Rehoboth at 3 p.m. on May 12 at Eldorado High School in Albuquerque.

“I think it’s well deserved,” Rehoboth head coach Anthony Sanchez said of the state seedings.

“Our guys had a great season, so I didn’t expect anything less than the one or two seed with the season we’re having,” he said. “I think we had a good schedule, we played some really good teams, so I was really pleased with the NMAA seeing it that way too.”

Sanchez said his team took care of business all season long as the only blemish they have is a 6-0 loss to 4A team Gallup.

“This team I have is very baseball smart,” he said. “We got a good group of guys who understand the game of baseball. They know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. And that is what makes it easy.”

Having an experienced bullpen, Sanchez said, also helps.

“We actually have some great pitchers,” he said. “We have five guys who can actually pitch, and I’m very comfortable putting any one of those five guys against anybody.”

The pitching staff includes sophomore Raeden West, junior Antonio Rivas, seniors Talon West, Mato Chapman, and Tyler Keedah.

“We probably have five aces,” Sanchez said. “Those guys could start for any club, anywhere, so we’re pretty fortunate.”

The Rehoboth coach said he can go deeper within his pitching rotation as freshman Morgan Arsenault and eighth-graders Trajen West and Kodah Chapman, having also seen some playing time on the mound.

The defense behind the pitchers, Sanchez said, is solid.

“Usually in our level, there are teams that have holes out there,” he said. “I really believe we have at the 2A level the best defense out there.

“Not that we don’t make mistakes, but we have kids that know what to do with the baseball, and they know where to go with the baseball. We’re very solid defensively.”

With a .343 batting average among 20 players, headlined by Rivas’ .491 average, the Lynx are a team to be reckoned with.

Rehoboth has five players hitting above .400, with Talon West leading the team 23 runs batted in.

“I love our chances, you know, one through nine,” Sanchez said. “Usually at our level, you’ll see the first four guys who are really good, but our bottom half brings in a lot of runs too.

“I can mix and match anybody,” he added. “I can put the nine-hole guy and use him as our leadoff hitter.”

Nonetheless, Sanchez said they’ve had their share of struggles by getting out a little slow.

“We’ve had a few pitchers who kept us off balance maybe in an inning or two,” he said. “But once we go through the rotation, we’ll figured it out. We’ve always got those timely hits, so we have the tendency to string together some hits. In baseball, that’s what you want to do.

“One thing we do very, very well that probably helps is we run bases extremely smart,” he continued. “We’re aggressive, and we do things right. We’re not careless, but we’re aggressive, and so that helps.”

Sanchez said the matchup between Texico and McCurdy will be a good one. The Lynx played both squads last season during the postseason as they beat McCurdy in the state quarters before losing to Texico in the state semis.

“They went and won the championship,” Sanchez said of Texico. “They lost a lot of seniors, so they’re young. I know they have one good arm out there that can actually shut people down, which is OK.”

In their half of the draw, the Lynx has the potential to see No. 3 Capitan as they will take on the winner between sixth seed Estancia and No. 11 Loving.

“Capitan is a very solid team too,” Sanchez said. “It’ll be interesting if we meet them in the semifinals.”

The top half of the bracket, Eunice earned the top seed as the Cardinals finished the regular season at 23-1 overall.

“Eunice is very solid,” Sanchez said. “I think they have 10 seniors, and eight of them start, so they’re a very experienced team. Talent-wise, I think we match up against them very well.”

With their talent, Sanchez is hopeful that his team will make the 2A title game on May 14.

“I look forward to being there on the 14th, and we’re planning on being on the 14th, but its baseball, anything can happen,” he said. “We’re not counting anybody out, but we’re going to come out and play every single game.”

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