Their April 19 split with Roswell High on the road put the Bulldog baseball team at something of a crossroads in District 4-AAAAA play. Their two losses to Goddard – the second in 10 innings – Tuesday only added to the tension.
But although Friday’s double dip against the Coyotes at Brainard Park was nothing short of a must-win situation, the ‘Dogs were loose. Their spirits were high, their sights were set, and it showed on the field, where the boys in orange shut out Roswell in a two-game sweep, 7-0 and 10-0 in six innings.
“Those were some of our best games of the year and also our quickest,” head coach Lee Johnson said Saturday.
The Bulldogs moved swiftly through the pair of contests, at one point outpacing the softball double header taking place across the street. The pace was helped along by 12 dominant innings from freshman pitcher JR Bustamonte, who blanked Roswell through seven in the opener – coming just two hits shy of a perfect game – then tossed a combined no-hitter in the nightcap with Cody Fuentes, who came on in relief in the top of the sixth for one inning of work.
Bustamonte seated the Coyotes in order in all but the third and sixth innings of Game One, where Rudy Castillo and Brandon Renteria broke up his otherwise unblemished game.
On offense, meanwhile, the ‘Dogs took one run out of the first on a Jharyss Granger single that scored Fuentes – aboard with a leadoff double – and added three more in the third on a two-RBI double by Grady Frost and RBI base hit by Granger.
Artesia tacked on one run in their fourth, fifth and sixth trips to the plate on an error, a Tristan Bowden single, and a Fuentes base hit to round out the final, 7-0.
Frost went 2-2 at the plate with two doubles and two RBI, Fuentes was 3-4 with a double, a triple and one run batted in, and Granger finished 2-3 with two RBI.
Roswell put runners on in the second and third innings of Game Two on a hit batsman and an error, but that would comprise their offense.
Artesia jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the second on RBI singles by Bowden and Bustamonte, a wild pitch, and a two-RBI base hit by Fuentes, then went up 8-0 in the fifth on an error, a passed ball, and a Taylor Null base knock.
That put the ‘Dogs two runs away from securing a run-rule in the sixth, which they did on bases-loaded walks by Carlos Carrasco and Granger. Null was 2-3 on the bout and Bustamonte 1-2, each with a RBI.
“JR picked up two good wins, and we played really solid defense again,” Johnson said. “Our bats came alive, also, and when we do that, we’re as good as anybody in the state.”
The pair of victories capped off the Bulldogs’ D4 mark at 7-5 and bumped their season record to 15-11.
They’ll now await the results of Sunday’s Class 5A state seeding and selection.
“If we’d have lost one of those games last night, I think we’d probably be travelling somewhere for sure,” said Johnson. “But our kids knew what they had to do, and they were pretty focused all night. We just put our heads down and got after the Coyotes, so now we’ll wait and see what happens with the selection committee.
“This sure is an exciting time of year, and I know the kids are excited. We’ll have a lot of confidence regardless of who we’re playing this weekend.”
