Rams softball remembers Kristin Griego with annual tournament

RIO RANCHO -- The Cleveland and Rio Rancho high school softball teams each went 2-2 at last week’s annual APS Metro Softball Championships, with the Rams finishing fourth in the 16-team event.

Now, the Rams (5-7) prepare for the 20th annual Kristin Griego Softball Tournament, honoring the late Kristin Griego, who passed away in 2003; the 2002 graduate of RRHS played four softball seasons for the Rams.

Rio Rancho gets the 20-team tournament started at noon Thursday in a game vs. Piedra Vista at the Eagle Ridge softball complex. The Rams’ next game is Friday morning at 8 vs. the winner of today’s Los Alamos-Eldorado game.

The Storm (8-9), meanwhile, are idle until they open District 1-5A competition Friday. April 4., at 4 p.m. at Cibola.

Coincidentally, the Rams lost a high-scoring affair, 17-15, Saturday in the Metro third-place game at Los Altos Park. It was the Rams’ second loss to a 1-5A foe last week, as they were relegated to the third-place contest after a 14-8 loss to Volcano Vista in a March 22 semifinal.

Rio Rancho got off to a 2-0 start in the four-day affair, defeating West Mesa 13-8, thanks to a dozen first-inning runs, on March 20 and Sandia, 6-3, with homers by Lilyrose Larrabee and Destiny Gonzales, on the 21st.

Cleveland had an up-and-down outing at Los Altos Park: eight runs in the fifth inning in a 13-6 win over Eldorado, followed by a 16-0 loss to La Cueva, followed by a 10-2 rout of Albuquerque High, before a 16-6 setback to Sandia; the Matadors’ 10-run fourth was the difference.

La Cueva beat Volcano Vista 10-0 for the Metro title on Saturday.

Bunts: The first coaches’ poll of the season was released last week. In 5A, only two metro schools were in the top 10 – La Cueva at No. 2 and AHS at No. 6. Neither the Rams nor the Storm garnered enough points to make the top 10.