{"id":34499,"date":"2023-04-21T03:29:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T09:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shiprock-rallies-for-big-district-baseball-win-over-aztec\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:18:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:18:37","slug":"shiprock-rallies-for-big-district-baseball-win-over-aztec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shiprock-rallies-for-big-district-baseball-win-over-aztec\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiprock rallies for big district baseball win over Aztec"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shiprock
Shiprock High School\u2019s Holden Etcitty delivers a pitch in a baseball game at Kirtland Central High School, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Photo courtesy Jerrod Noble\/CCSD.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FARMINGTON \u2013 The regular season for San Juan County prep baseball teams is winding down to its final weeks, with each game taking on greater significance with the postseason looming.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a glance at some of the action on the diamonds which took place during a chilly, windy Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Shiprock 12, Aztec 11<\/div>\n

The Shiprock High School baseball team, trailing at one point 8-4, rallied to score seven runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning before earning a walk-off victory at home Thursday over Aztec by a final of 12-11.<\/p>\n

The win splits the District 1-4A campaign for the Tigers and Chieftains after a pair of games. Aztec won the first meeting between these teams in similar dramatic fashion by a final of 9-8 earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Braeden Atcitty\u2019s single in the bottom of the seventh inning broke an 11-11 tie, scoring Holden Etcitty and giving the Chieftains the second win of the district season.<\/p>\n

Atcitty, who drove in four runs for the Chieftains, saved his most important at-bat for the game winner. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Atcitty roped a single to left-center field, scoring Etictty for the walk-off win.<\/p>\n

Elijah Williams, who came into the game to relieve starting pitcher Logan Pioche, earned the win for Shiprock (7-10 overall, 2-5 District). Pioche threw five innings and allowed eight runs on eight hits and four walks as Aztec\u2019s offense got out to a commanding 7-3 lead after three innings.<\/p>\n

Both teams had their share of defensive miscues, with Aztec committing six errors and the Chieftains committing five of their own. Jacob Prada-Johnson, Xavier Newton, Justin Bixler and Izaiah Sanchez each scored a pair of runs for Aztec while pitcher Kale Watson was effective from the mound, striking out four.<\/p>\n

Watson got into trouble to start the bottom of the fourth inning, walking Watson and Alexavier Yazzie in between giving up a single to Elijah Williams. Prada-Johnson came in to relieve Watson and allowed the Chieftains to score only one run, keeping Aztec in front 7-4 heading to the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Aztec extended the lead to 8-4 heading to the bottom of the fifth before the Chieftains mounted a huge rally, scoring seven times to take the lead.<\/p>\n

A 2-out single by Atcitty that scored Etcitty and Pioche was preceded Etcitty\u2019s 2-RBI single that plated both Dayshaun Benally and Tyler Etcitty.<\/p>\n

Aztec rallied to score three times in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game, thanks to Bixler\u2019s 2-RBI single which scored Newton and Prada-Johnson.<\/p>\n

Aztec wasted a leadoff single in the top of the seventh by Watson, stranding him on the base paths and keeping the game knotted at 11-11 before the Chieftains rallied for the win.<\/p>\n

The loss by Aztec (12-9 overall, 4-3 District) further muddies the race for top spot in the district standings. The District 1-4A defending champs are currently behind both Miyamura and Bloomfield atop the district race with only three games remaining on the schedule, including a showdown Saturday at 11 a.m. at Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

Shiprock will visit Kirtland Central for a district game on Saturday at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Bloomfield 17, Gallup 0<\/div>\n

The Bloomfield High School baseball team extended its win streak to four straight games while knocking off Gallup by a final of 17-0 in a run-rule home victory at Bobcat Stadium.<\/p>\n

Ryan Sharpe hit a home run and drove in four while Blake Spencer had three RBI\u2019s and a triple as the Bobcats scored runs in both the first and second innings on its way to the win.<\/p>\n

Bloomfield improves to 15-5 on the season (5-2 District 1-4A) and remaining tied atop the District 1-4A standings with Miyamura.<\/p>\n

Sharpe struck out four Bengals hitters while allowing only one hit in three innings of work for the win. Elias Munoz closed out the contest striking out a pair of hitters, giving up only one walk in two innings of relief.<\/p>\n

Bloomfield will be home on Saturday at 11 a.m. to face Aztec.<\/p>\n

Miyamura 15, Kirtland Central 1<\/div>\n

Chris Chavez had a home run and a pair of RBI\u2019s while Dylan Joines scored three times and drove in a pair of runs as Miyamura High School\u2019s baseball team routed Kirtland Central on the road by a final of 15-1.<\/p>\n

The Patriots scored three runs in each of the five innings of the run-rule victory. They were led offensively by five extra-base hits and a commanding performance on the mound from starting pitcher Isaiah Martinez, who struck out six and allowed only three hits and a pair of walks.<\/p>\n

The Patriots victory completes a sweep of the two-game series between the district rivals. Miyamura beat Kirtland Central by a final of 11-4 earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Kirtland Central (12-11, 4-3 District 1-4A) has lost two in a row and will hope to bounce back Saturday at 11 a.m. when they host Shiprock.<\/p>\n

Miyamura (9-11 overall, 5-2 District) has won four of its last five games and will visit crosstown rival Gallup on Saturday at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shiprock High School\u2019s Holden Etcitty delivers a pitch in a baseball game at Kirtland Central High School, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Photo courtesy Jerrod Noble\/CCSD. FARMINGTON \u2013 The regular season for San Juan County prep baseball teams is winding down to its final weeks, with each game taking on greater significance with the postseason looming. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82634,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34499\/revisions\/82634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34499"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}