Baseball Team Starts Off With Two Victories

By John Severance

SOCORRO -- Like most baseball coaches and players, Alan Edmonson is superstitious.
The Socorro baseball coach sat in the dugout last Friday in Pojoaque as Warrior pitcher Charlie Savedra was mowing down the Elks. In the fourth inning, two of the players on the bench said, “Hey, he’s got a no-hitter going.”
Sure enough, the next batter up got a hit.
And that was the only hit Savedra gave up as Socorro rolled to a 13-0 win in game one and a 19-5 victory in game two to open its season.
“We hit the ball well,” Edmonson said. “We only had six strikeouts in two games. If you put the ball in play, there is a good chance the other team will kick it around and good things will happen.”
Edmonson is hoping some good things will happen with this year’s Warrior baseball squad.
Socorro is coming off a 23-7 record last season in which it made it to the state semifinals before falling to Cobre 6-5.
The Warriors will have to replace starting catcher Chas Mora, top pitcher Jeren Heren, first baseman Jay Hooper, center fielder Andre Gonzalez and right fielders John Zuni and George Gallegos, who platooned at that position.
“We took quite a few hits at some important positions,” Edmonson said. But Edmonson says he always puts high expectations on his baseball teams and this year is no exception.
At catcher, the Warriors will depend on John Padilla or Daniel Gonzalez. Justus Jaramillo and Ibrahim Miaga will share time at shortstop, Michael Chavez will play third base, Kenneth DeCosta, who played left field last year, will play in center and Irving Gomez, Ronnie Baca and Freddie Martinez, will alternate between left and right field.
Tyler Zuni will man first base and when he is not pitching, Savedra will play second base. Another player who will see significant time in the infield will be eighth grader Josh Doyle.
In the season-opening doubleheader, Doyle reached base six times out of eight at-bats. “You can’t ask for much more than that,” Edmonson said.
Socorro will host its eight-team tournament beginning Thursday at 1 p.m. against Thoreau.

Baseball Team Starts Off With Two Victories