Michigan-born Nick Winkler ‘ready to go’

Last season, by all accounts, was a nightmare for Gallup High School football. Although there was a 33-0 home opening win against Bernalillo (3-7, 2-4) in August, the next nine games were a disaster.

The Bengals dropped relatively close games to Thoreau (5-5, 1-2) and Shiprock (8-3, 3-0), but went on a seven-game losing streak in which the team’s offense couldn’t put up points. Each of those games was a blowout loss, with a 54-0 home loss to crosstown 5A rival Miyamura (9-3, 3-2) in October a tell-tale sign for what was to come for Bengals’ fans. Within the losing streak, Gallup (1-9, 0-5) recorded losses by an average of about 49...

MHS finishes with No. 8 5A ranking

ALBUQUERQUE – The No. 8 Miyamura Patriots scored two runs in the latter innings, but weren’t able to overcome No. 1 Goddard in a 7-5 lost on May 10 in a 5A state quarterfinals game at St. Pius X High School.

The late Miyamura rally came after the Patriots (15-12, 6-4) exploded for a 3-0 lead in the opening inning. But the early momentum waned.

“We were able to make a run, but came up a little short,” Patriots’ head coach Brian Silva said. “We played a good game, just couldn’t come out on top.”

Miyamura went into the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and just one out against Rockets senior relief pitcher Ty Hardwick...

Miyamura to play No. 1 Roswell Goddard

The Miyamura Patriots got hot on offense and clamped down on defense to beat the Alamogordo Tigers 6-0 in the second game of a three-game series May 5 to advance to the second round of the New Mexico 5A baseball tournament at Miyamura High School.

Freshman starting pitcher Marc Rios allowed two hits in the win. The No. 8 seeded Patriots (15-11) now play Roswell Goddard in the quarterfinals May 11 at St. Pius in Albuquerque.

“It was a good win for us,” Miyamura head coach Brian Silva said. “The guys really played tough on defense and we got the hits we wanted on offense.”

The Tigers (13-16) won the first game of the series May 5 by...

Lynx hit well, can’t maintain momentum

The Rehoboth Lynx ultimately got hot at the plate, but couldn’t sustain the offensive flow and dropped the second game of a baseball doubleheader 13-9 on April 28 to the Magdalena Steers in a tight contest played at Ford Canyon Park.

The game was the penultimate game of the 2018 season for both teams. Rehoboth is in its second consecutive season of varsity baseball, since doing away with the sport several years ago.

“We got some momentum going, but couldn’t keep it up,” Rehoboth head coach Anthony Sanchez said. “We played hard both games.”

The 2A Steers (9-10, 3-3) jumped out to a 5-0 lead at the start of the third inning behind...