Sports

Vying for a title

Shiprock benefits from drop in classification

By Quentin Jodie
Navajo Times

SHIPROCK, April 21, 2011

After winning no more than five games in each of the last six seasons, the Shiprock baseball team isn't messing around this year.

That's because the Chieftains no longer compete against the state's juggernauts in District 1-4A, which features the always-tough Farmington and Piedra Vista squads. Instead the Chieftains dropped down a classification, a move that was needed for the program.

"We're playing people at our level of competition and our kids are starting to learn how to play baseball," said Shiprock coach Gary Graham. "Before that we were getting our butts kicked."

In those trying years, the Chieftains were getting shut out in almost every district game.

"We were just a bunch of rez boys trying to play ball against guys who were getting drafted (into the Major League Baseball)," said senior ace pitcher Brian Poyer. "So it was really tough to get through the season."

Consequently, those beatings demoralized what little they had and as a result there wasn't much thought by athletes to join the baseball team. But since the change, Graham saw an increase in participation.

"We got more kids on the team now so they're coming to practice a little better," the sixth-year coach said. "And you know we're getting some of the better athletes who wouldn't join because we played in that district."

Of the 18 players that tried out for the team, six were first-year players who started for Graham in a recent game against Wingate on April 14 as the Chieftains improved their overall record to 8-6 for the year, including a 6-0 mark in District 1-3A.

Shiprock won the first game in a 4-3 tilt that went eight innings before capping the evening contest with a 7-4 win at Ford Canyon Park in Gallup.

In the first game, the Chieftains opened up an early 3-0 lead as Poyer retired 12 straight batters before Tey Skeets got the Bears going with a single in the bottom of the fifth. The senior catcher eventually scored on botched play at first and soon after that Wingate plated two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the contest.

"We dropped a lot of pop flies and as a pitcher that's frustrating," Poyer said. "But you know my team was right there behind me."

In the next inning both teams went scoreless as the game was sent into extra innings.

But that was when Shiprock put the pressure on Wingate by loading the bases with one out. Second baseman Joshua Bileen started the inning with a single before Wingate pitcher Vernon Yazzie walked the next two batters. Poyer then nailed a fly ball to midfield as Bileen scored the go-ahead run.

"That was a nail biter," Poyer said, who went 3-for-5 at the plate.

Still, the game was far from over as the Bears had one last at-bat. But unlike the sixth inning when Shiprock coughed up two errors, Poyer closed the game with three straight outs.

"I wasn't sure if this was going go beyond eight innings," Graham said. "But Brian managed to settle them down. In that one little inning (sixth) we didn't make any kind of defensive plays and we let them back into the ball game."

"We had better days," junior shortstop Isaiah Harrison added. "We couldn't field the ball off the turf and our batting wasn't too hot today."

Yet the final stats showed that Shiprock outhit Wingate 9-3. But they also stranded 11 batters with six in scoring position.

"We had people on bases all game long, but we just didn't get a timely hit except there at very end," Harrison added.

That hit by Poyer all but earned the Chieftains the tiebreaker over Wingate in the race for the league crown. With six games in the regular season, Shiprock will close out the year against Thoreau and Tohatchi including two doubleheaders against the Hawks.

"If we can at least split with Thoreau we'll be the district champs," Graham said.

It's a feeling that the Chieftains haven't had as long as Graham can remember, let alone the entire team that grew up in the community.

"I've been playing with these guys since I was in sixth grade," Poyer said, who didn't know if any Shiprock team before him ever challenged for a district crown.

"Our goal this year was to try to knock off some top teams and get respect," he added. "And since it's my senior year I want to go out with a bang."

And for the most part they have as Shiprock placed second in the Farmington JV tournament last month. But as far as gaining respect there's significant work to be done.

"I'm excited that the kids will get to go to state, but this district is going to be seeded so low," Graham said. "I imagine we would be a 14, 15 or 16 in the tournament, so to get deep into the tournament we have play our minds out to compete."

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