Offense stays hot, but Spartans baseball can't top Horsemen in Santa Fe

SANTA FE — The offense traveled north, but a victory wasn’t present on the return trip.

Heading north to Santa Fe to face St. Michael’s, Bernalillo baseball fell to the Horsemen 9-7 in midweek action.

A seven-run outing keeps up the status quo for the Spartans, having scored less than five runs in just two of their nine games to begin the season.

An early offensive display in the first three innings would give Bernalillo a 6-0 lead before St. Michael’s would respond with an eight-run barrage in the fourth inning.

Free passes were the thorn in the Spartans’ side when it came to pitching, with senior starter Jacob Duran allowing seven walks on the day.

Duran finished the outing with seven earned runs on two hits and seven walks, striking out five batters in three innings as he sits at 2-2 on the young season.

At the plate, junior Ulisses Castro posted his second three-RBI game of the season, going 1-for-2 with two walks and a bases-clearing double.

Fellow Class of 2027 bat Ryan Mortensen would join Castro in the multi-RBI department, notching two RBI on a double as well.

Zachary and Jacob Duran would be quite the duo in the lineup as well, with Zach finishing with two hits and an RBI as Jacob would do his all to give himself some run support on the mound, coming across to score three times in a one-hit, one-walk, and one hit-by-pitch afternoon.

St. Michael’s would run into similar troubles on the mound, with Bernalillo working seven walks to match their seven hits.

While both teams were in a bases-on-balls battle, the difference maker would lie in the Horsemen’s timely hitting.

SMHS sophomore Carson West was four-for-four on the day with three singles and a double in the seven spot, allowing teammates Jedrek Lewandowski and Andre Bryant to bring him in as the two juniors combined for three RBI.

Bernalillo would bring home two runs in the fifth after St. Michael’s fourth-inning explosion, but it would not be enough to stage an offensive response and steal one on the road.

In an up-and-down start to the season, the Spartans now sit at 5-4. After hosting Moriarty, Bernalillo will be back on the road to face the Grants Pirates before beginning district play in late March.