The memorable run of the Santa Fe Little League majors division champions came to an end on Tuesday night at Ron Shirley Alto Park.
Against Artesia in an elimination game, Santa Fe remained narrowly in a 6-4 defeat. The first City Different team to make it to the Majors Baseball State Tournament in nearly two decades, Santa Fe ended an 18-year drought by winning the District 1 Championship on June 30th.
Santa Fe hosted the tournament for the first time since 2009 and was proud to win the opening round against Springer last weekend before losing to Albuquerque Roadrunner and Tuesday to Artesia.
The double elimination event will continue on Wednesday with just one game; Artesia versus Karlsbad Shorthorn. Shorthorn maintained their chances of a three-goal tournament with a blowout win over Belen in Tuesday’s earlier game.
Shorthorn has won the state title in each of the last two tournaments. Little League canceled the 2020 season due to the pandemic.
Of the nine teams, only four are still alive. Wednesday’s winner will reach the final of the elimination round against Roadrunner on Thursday. The winner there reached the final on the same evening against the unbeaten Rio Rancho Sunset.
Sunset only allowed five runs in three games and scored 29 runs.
In Tuesday’s game, Santa Fe never led. Artesia scored two runs early and added another in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead. At this point, the Santa Fe Little League threat was finally producing runs and scoring twice on defensive mistakes.
Zach Herrera kept the inning going despite falling out with two losses and a runner on the third stroke. On the third stroke, the ball escaped Artesia’s catcher. The catcher then threw the ball over the right field line, causing Santa Fe’s Darrell Carbajal to race home from third. The second run came home just moments later on a wild place and reduced Artesia’s lead to 3-2.
It didn’t last. Artesia took those two runs back in the bottom of the fourth, then added an insurance run in the fifth to open a 6-2 lead towards the final frame.
Santa Fe scored two goals and had the potential equalizer on the base when Artesia scored the final. Carbajal and Finn Evans got things started with back-to-back singles. Jayden Trujillo had an RBI double. He later came home to score the second run with two outs.
Joshua Avila and Enrique Martinez both reached out and gave Santa Fe runners on the corners, but that was all they could get.
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