Prep baseball season already underway

Cleveland High senior Malachi Jaramillo (15), seen greeted here at the plate by some of his teammates, is already ahead of his homer total for 2023: zero. He swatted a three-run bomb in the Storm’s opening day 9-7 win over Clovis on Feb. 29. (Photo by Joe Grimando)

Play ball!

Yes, basketball season is still ongoing, but the softball and baseball diamonds are staying busy already.

The Rio Rancho High School baseball team opened defense of its 2023 Class 5A title by winning four of its first five games, played as usual in El Paso.

Rams fans, and prep baseball fans in general, can see the Rams in action at 3:30 this afternoon (March 7) at La Cueva.

It’ll be a few more weeks before Cleveland High fans get to see the Storm at home, with tournaments in Hobbs and Las Cruces preceding the Metro tournament, when Cleveland usually gets a game or two at home.

Rams start year without longtime head coach

Every high school championship team loses seniors before the next season rolls around, and such is the case for the 2023 Class 5A baseball champions.

But the Rio Rancho Rams – 27-2-2 in 2023 – lost more than the battery of ace Seth Lee and catcher Josh Boyer, plus the keystone combination of shortstop Niko Alcala and second baseman Vascon Smith, along with third baseman Kai Fitak, they also lost their head coach.

Ron Murphy, the school’s only head baseball coach since its debut season in 1998, and who led the Rams to four state titles, is on paid administrative leave, awaiting his fate – and desperately missing the game and school he loves so much.

In his absence, though, the Rams have a competent former assistant coach, David Gomez, who has coaching experience beyond high school; he coached the game at NMMI and Eastern New Mexico University previously.

Under Gomez, who had been the Rams’ pitching coach and third-base coach when they were batting, the team won four of its five games in El Paso the weekend of Feb. 22-24, better than its 2-1-2 start there in 2023. Maybe even better than going 5-0 south of the border, the team had zero errors while playing on five different fields.

Apparently, it’s not too early to have a pleasant surprise, and for Gomez, it’s been junior Brandon Segal, who made his varsity debut in El Paso.

Being a starting pitcher, Gomez said, “was not our anticipation.

“He was solid during the whole season, during the fall. He was a solid pitcher on JV, too; we were more thinking of him as a second baseman. And in the Socorro game, we needed to get out of a jam. He came in and threw three pitches and got a strikeout,” Gomez added. “We had a long next half-inning, and he wasn’t as sharp, coming out the next inning, because he’d sat out cold for a while. So we pulled him out; Casen came in and closed it. So he was a very fresh arm …, In the last game, we had pretty much utilized everyone (on the mound). And out of all the guys, we thought he gave us the best look – and we gave him a start.

“Our anticipation was he’d go one time through the lineup, nine batters – it turned into six innings,” Gomez lauded. “It was very efficient, like 68 pitches. It wasn’t anything crazy, and then Casen came in and closed it out.”

Defense is a strength, based on what he saw in those five games, but he was a bit concerned with the offense.

“We did well offensively, but we left a lot of runs on the table,” he said, thinking the Rams left 30 men on base in the five games. “Offensively, we did what we needed to do. Defensively, it was very surprising with no errors in five games, which is not what we anticipated. We expected a lot of young mistakes, because we have a lot of new faces out there, but everybody stepped up.”

Another pleasant surprise has been freshman Keegan Burke, who “got the start vs. Chapin and had, I believe, nine strikeouts for that game. … Coming in as a 15-year-old,” Gomez said. “The family’s a military family and new to the district, and “a high GPA kid; we’re super-excited about him.”

Gomez isn’t naïve about taking the reins – who knows for how long? – from Murphy, the state’s winningest prep baseball coach.

“Everyone loves the backup quarterback, and that’s what I’ve been for the last few years,” he said. “Eventually, that will wear off and I’ll have to deal with some issues here and there, and that comes with the territory.”

His style doesn’t vary much from Murphy’s.

“One thing I have to understand is, I’m never going to be Ron,’” he said. “I mean, Ron is who he is and that’s why he’s good. Things that maybe he’d probably raise his voice over, I can’t. I don’t have the clout he has here, so sometimes I’ll pull a kid aside, put my arm around him.”

He knows that college coaches don’t deal with parents to the extent high school coaches do, because many times college players’ parents live miles away. In high school, they’re probably only a few blocks away.

“I’ve learned a lot from him to help me along in this process, but one thing I can’t be is him,” Gomez said. “So, I’ll try to be the best version of me as I can, and keep as many things similar as I can as well.”

Camps and clinics will continue in the offseason, “to keep the community involvement.

“I tell my guys that we’re the only baseball program in this city that wears Rio Rancho across our chest, so we want to represent the city every time we can.”

Looking ahead, knowing a handful of tournaments should get the Rams ready for the tough District 1-5A battles, Gomez said, “This team has a good nucleus of leaders, and they’re accepting what their role is right now and hopefully we’ll be better because of it down the road.

“We’re gonna be challenged, because we are who we are,” he said. “There’s a reason that we have the winningest coach of all time in this program, because we win. So, the expectations are high when we play, and we have to be ready to go when the first ball’s thrown.”

The Rams have a couple slogans, he concluded.

“Alive on arrival,” is how he wants his guys to be ready before the first pitch, because state champs always have a proverbial target on their backs. “Trust each other” will be the key when the going gets tough. And Gomez wants to keep that “family” mentality espoused by Murphy.

The Rams’ first home game will be in the annual eight-team Sal Puentes Rio Rancho Tournament: Thursday, March 28, at 5:30 p.m. vs. Goddard.

What about the Cleveland Storm?

Cleveland High School wants to leave the last memory of the 2023 season in the rearview mirror.

Piedra Vista was the last team the Storm – 20-8 and the 5 seed at state last season — faced in 2023, beating the visiting Panthers twice in the best-of-three first round, only to be disqualified when a CHS pitcher exceeded the 120-pitch count. The Panthers advanced to the quarterfinals, and were eliminated in the semifinals by Rio Rancho’s other baseball team, the state-champion Rams.

Cleveland lost seven seniors off the ’23 team and has five players about to play in the college ranks next season.

“I think we have 11 guys back from last year, so we’ve got experience, and we’ve got a pretty good senior class: eight seniors,” said coach Shane Shallenberger. “I’m hoping we’ll be well-rounded with pitching depth.”

Jaden Davis, signed to play at New Mexico State University, is the team’s ace. Robert Stevenson, Silas Hilton, Karter Weddle, Gabe Nelson and Jarren Villa and Anthony del Angel also logged innings on the mound in 2023.

“I think we’ve got a lot of guys that can pitch, but he’s definitely one of our top guys, definitely,” he said, noting Owen Bishop returns as the catcher.

District 1-5A will, again, be tough, with the state champs form the south side of Northern Blvd., always-tough Volcano Vista, “scrappy” Cibola and Atrisco Heritage Academy which has another new head coach.

To get ready for the 1-5A battles, the Storm have four tournaments following their own: in Hobbs, Las Cruces, the APS Metro tournament and the annual Sal Puentes Rio Rancho tournament.

Former Storm ballplayer Scott Ostrowski is the team’s new pitching coach; Bob Tyler returns to an assistant role, which he gave up during his son Chase’s stint on the team, which ended with Chase Tyler’s graduation last May. Former Rams ballplayer and assistant coach Mario Tafoya is back for his second season with the Storm.

UPDATE ON THE STORM’S THREE-DAY ROUND-ROBIN LAST WEEK

Cleveland 9, Clovis 7: After scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Thursday afternoon, in its 2024 diamond opener, the Storm looked poised to beat the Clovis Wildcats.

It was a 9-5 lead for the Storm, but the Wildcats wouldn’t go quietly, and even sent the potential game-winning batter to the plate with two on.

Fortunately, senior reliever Noah Tillotson got that batter on a comebacker to earn a save in the Storm’s 9-7 win.

After trailing 1-0 in the top of the first, the Storm tied it in their half of the first, then used a three-run homer by senior first baseman Malachi Jaramillo to take the lead for good. Jaramillo grinned as he said he hadn’t had a homer in 2023.

Jaramillo, headed to Texas A&M-Permian Basin next season, had told his teammates before the game that he was “going yard.”

The Wildcats got a run in the fourth off Cleveland starter Robert Stevenson (1-0), who was removed after walking the Wildcats’ leadoff batter in the fifth.

Lefty Xavier Vasquez kept that frame under control, although the batter that walked came around to score, for a 4-3 Storm lead. With two down in the bottom of the fifth, Jaden Davis smacked a double and Jaramillo doubled him home to make it 5-4.

Clovis plated a run in the fifth, followed by the Storm’s four-run outburst – a two-run triple by Brandon Hennessey and a two-run two-bagger by Silas Hilton.

It looked like an easy save for Gene Nelson, who got a flyout to end the Clovis sixth, but he gave up three hits and walked two Wildcats to put the tying run on base.

That’s when Tillotson came in and got the save.

“First-game jitters,” is how Jaramillo put the opener, which lasted nearly 2½ hours.

In addition to Jaramillo, Hilton, Davis, Owen Bishop and Jacob Brevig had two hits for the Storm.

Hobbs 5, Cleveland 3: Coach Shane Shallenberger pointed out his team’s weakness in its second game of the season, played Friday.

“We left a guy at third base four innings in a row,” he said, and by game’s end, a fifth time.

“You gotta get the runs when you have the opportunity,” he said. “I thought we left quite a few out there, for sure.”

The Storm left seven on base by game’s end, six of those in scoring position.

Jarren Villa (0-1) started and threw the first five innings, striking out 11 and walking just one.

But after fanning the Eagles’ leadoff batter in the fifth, he gave up – in order – a triple, single, double and a double – and Hobbs turned a 1-0 lead into a 4-0 lead.

The Storm got a run in the sixth without a hit and threatened to tie or take the lead in the seventh.

With one down, Brevig had an infield single and Villa hit into a fielder’s choice. After a walk to Hennessy, Vinny Del Angel’s triple to left sent them home for 5-3. Hilton, the team’s cleanup hitter, ended his 0 for 3 day with a groundout to end the game.

“I thought Jarren pitched fine,” Shallenberger said. “The ball found a couple holes for them. He had a good day for his first outing of the season.”

The lone walk Villa issued scored Hobbs’ first run.

Cleveland 12, Piedra Vista 4: On Saturday, the Storm batted around in the sixth inning, scoring nine runs and turning what had been a 3-3 tie into an easy win.

Only two of those nine runs were earned, and it made a winner out of Vasquez (1-0), who entered the game with nobody out and two runners on in the top of the sixth. He then sandwiched strikeouts around a groundout to end the threat.

Hilton socked a three-run homer and Hennessey doubled home a pair of runs in the Storm’s decisive frame, as five walks and three Panthers errors aided the home team’s cause.

Extra innings: In El Paso (Feb. 22-24), the Rams, in order, beat Eastlake (9-2), El Paso Socorro (8-4), Chapin (10-0) and Midland Legacy (3-2), with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. They lost their fourth game in El Paso, 5-4, to Americas.

… The Rams are at La Cueva Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and in Farmington Friday to play Piedra Vista at 4.

… The Storm are in Hobbs this week, Thursday-Saturday, for three games in the Eagles’ tournament. Cleveland opens vs. Los Lunas on Thursday.