Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Three of Quay County’s Little League baseball teams competed in the recent District 4 tournament in Las Vegas, with the intermediate, age 11-13 team making finishing second.
The age 11 to 13 Quay County All-Stars scored a 14-10 victory over Las Vegas but were ousted after consecutive losses to La Plaza during the double-elimination tournament.
Johnny Aughtman, one of the squad’s coaches, said the team looked “really sharp” during the tournament.
“We lacked experience. That’s probably what cost us,” he said. “But they had a blast.”
The Quay County age 10-12 team won its opener against Pojoaque 11-7 and defeated Springer 11-5. But it lost to Las Vegas 9-5 and was eliminated with a loss to Raton last Monday.
“It was a good experience,” said Mike Martinez, one of the Quay County team’s coaches. “We had good hitting and good pitching from all of them. Every was impressed with the three girls we had on our team.”
The age 9-11 Quay County All-Stars finished fourth. The team lost its initial game to La Plaza, then overcame a 9-2 deficit to defeat Santa Rosa-Fort Sumner 16-10.
Quay County then was eliminated with another loss to La Plaza.
Haily Wallace, president of Quay County Little League, said that “overall, we were very competitive in this district with every team we took this year.”
She said she and her husband Bo took over the local Little League program three years ago, and “we feel we have really built it back up since COVID.”
“I expect us to be very competitive over the next several years and maybe even taken four to six different teams to the district All-Star tournament next year between our baseball and softball divisions,” she added.
“It is awesome that our kids get to experience baseball and softball early on in our county through Little League, and I expect we will continue to see these kids excel in high school.”