Deming girls earned a trifecta with no payout over the weekend. The Lady Wildcats were saddled with a trio of losses during the Artesia Invitational Softball Tournament in Artesia. Host Artesia took liberties in a 14-3 victory on Thursday to send the Lady ’Cats into the consolation bracket. The game was shortened to five innings, via the 10-run mercy rule in New Mexico high school softball. Class 3A Bayard Cobre …
Artesia’s Rylee Crandall dominated Gallup in Saturday’s Class 4A softball final. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)
(Click here for the Class 4A bracket.)
Even a washed-away 2020 season could not stop the momentum of Artesia’s softball program.
The Bulldogs captured their third straight 4A softball state title blanking Gallup 4-0 at the University of New Mexico Softball Field on Saturday afternoon.
Junior pitcher RyLee Crandall had a dominant one-hit shutout victory, striking out 15 and walking just one.
Crandall came one out from pitching a no-hitter, but Gallup’s Taylor Morgan broke it up with an infield single.
“Our team just wanted to do as much as we could do to get back here again,” Crandall said of the state finals win. “It would’ve been nice (to have the no-hitter), but my team had my back, and I’m super-proud of them.”