A PAIR OF NO HITTERS & A COMPETE WITH CLASS MOMENT
The 2020 State Basketball Championships are right around the corner, but spring sports have started and we already have a couple noteworthy pitching performances. On Tuesday, St. Pius X pitcher Hayden Walker and Logan Garcia threw a combined no-hitter in a 3-0 win over Sandia Prep. Walker, who will attend Pepperdine University in the fall, struck out 12 batters through five innings. Garcia came in for the final two innings of relief. The defending state champs improved to 2-1 on the year and host Del Norte on Thursday in the first round of their Andres Arguello Invitational.
Also, Centennial pitcher Josh Montoya opened their season with a no-no. The senior did not allow a hit in the Hawks first game of the season against Cobre. Montoya struck out 8 batters in Centennial’s 18-0 win on February 25th. According to the Las Cruces Sun News, Montoya is the first player in the history of the program to pitch a solo no-hitter after Wilson Bannister and Jake Rivera combined to no-hit Gadsden last year.
Making a Point
Last week, Highland High School senior Erasmo Carreon reached the 1,000 point mark for his career with the Hornets.
Now that’s a Mouthful
Cleveland High School’s leading scorer might be a little sore for the Storm’s 1st round matchup against Rio Rancho. Tre Watson underwent a root canal this week to repair some damage he suffered after taking a hit to the mouth in a recent game against Cibola. According to head coach Sean Jimenez, Watson should be ready to go on Saturday. Watson is averaging 17 points a game.
Top 10
Santa Fe High School standout JB White was recently listed on a Recruits News as the 8th top small forward recruit in the Class of 2021. Earlier this season, White committed to play basketball for the University of New Mexico.
Make Me An Offer
Los Lunas defensive end Tyler Kiehne recently received another scholarship offer from the University of Utah and Kansas University. The 6’4” 250-pound junior also has offers from UCLA, California, Washington and Washington State.
Compete with Class
Last month, several New Mexico officials were part of an emotional gesture at the district basketball semifinal game at Cobre High School. Cobre was hosting the Socorro Warriors and a donation was made to the Burrola family by the Grant County Officials. The reason for the donation was that a 10-year old 4th grader at Central Elementary (Santa Clara, NM), Josue Burrola, was diagnosed with leukemia.
Weeks earlier when the community found out about Josue’s condition, both Silver City and the Mining district began to show love and support to the Burrola family by planning enchilada dinners, gofundme accounts and holding raffles to generate more donations. Both Cobre boys and girls basketball teams laced orange ribbon in their shoelaces to show their support. The community was hoping Josue could fight leukemia.
One of the teachers at Central Elementary is a member of the Grant County Officials and sent a group message out to the officials asking for prayers to support Josue and for his family, father Tony, mother Shelley, older brothers Daniel (freshman at Cobre High School) and Cruz (6th grader at Central Elementary). The group message received immediate feedback from the local officials. One of the officials in the Grant County group responded with the following message:
“Jeremy, have an idea, just speaking for me, not knowing all the details about that family with the kid, but my younger brother many years ago had cancer. He beat it and is ok today, but it was quite a burden on him financially, traveling, getting treatment, etc… I would be willing to donate 1 night of refereeing to the family if you think appropriate. Might be a nice gesture and not bad publicity if we all considered it as a group. I don’t mean to speak for everyone, I just remember how hard it was on my brother at the time.”
As soon as that message went to the group, other officials began responding that they too would be willing to donate a game of officiating to the family. One official after another replied with similar responses.
Unfortunately, Josue Burrola passed away from his complications with leukemia on February 17, 2020 at 10 years old, but the support didn’t stop. The community continued to show support by selling t-shirts, orange bracelets and fundraising.
With the basketball season winding down, the officials continued to donate one game to the family to help with whatever they may need. By the time the Cobre boys basketball team hosted the Socorro Warriors in the semifinal game of the district 3AAA tournament on February 27, the Grant County Officials had donated $730 to donate to the family. Josue’s mother and two older brothers were there to accept the donation.
A member of the Socorro coaching staff has a family member who is also battling leukemia and asked if his team, staff, and himself can stand in the picture to show their support for Josue and his family as well. The Warriors wore warm-up shirts with the word “FAMILY” across their chests. District rivals, the Socorro Warriors and the Cobre Indians basketball teams, stood side by side, along with the Grant County Officials, to present the donation to the Burrola family.
As a follow up to the outpouring of support, the Cobre Indians won the district semifinal game against the Warriors to advance to play against the defending the State Champions, the Hot Springs Tigers, for the District 3AAA Championship. The Tigers’ coaches and players each had on a temporary orange ribbon tattoo on their forearm to show support to the Cobre family for the loss of little Josue.
