Cats play well, but drop pair to Cavemen

CARLSBAD — If the Clovis High baseball team played this well every time out, coach Shane Shallenberger would have few complaints.

The Wildcats, though, came up short in their District 4-5A-opening doubleheader against Carlsbad on Saturday, losing to the Cavemen 5-4 and 3-0.

Carlsbad (14-5, 2-0 district) erased a 4-1, sixth-inning deficit in the opener, then won behind the three-hit shutout pitching of Daniel Martinez in the second game.

“I was happy with the way we competed,” Shallenberger said. “They played hard for both games, and we were in both games.”

Run-scoring singles by Jarod Kiser and Andrew Gilliard helped stake the Cats (9-11, 0-2) to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the opener, but they managed only four more hits in t hat game. They went up 4-1 in the fourth when Omar Sosa walked, stole second and scored on a double by Jake Burrell.

Carlsbad tied the game with three in the sixth, capped by Matt Chivarria’s two-run double, then won it in the seventh on an RBI single by Matt Flores.

Clovis made just four errors in the doubleheader, but two of them came in the second inning of the nightcap and gave the Cavemen a 1-0 lead. Carlsbad added two more in the fourth on a two-run single by Chavarria.

Martinez pitched the seventh inning of the opener to get the win in that one. He walked one and struck out nine in the second game.

“Daniel Martinez threw a real good game for them,” Shallenberger said. “He threw a lot of strikes.”

Jake Burrell took the loss for Clovis in the nightcap, allowing six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

Clovis returns to action on Saturday with a district doubleheader at Hobbs. It will be the final road trip of the regular season for the Cats.