Santa Fe hammers way to state title
Jul. 24—Elijah King witnessed first hand how practice really does make perfect — especially when facing some of the state's best Senior Little League teams.
King, a 15-year-old rising sophomore at Santa Fe High, spent much of June and July with his fellow Santa Fe Little League All-Stars in preparation for the Senior Little League (ages 16 and under) State Tournament in Albuquerque. Those few weeks proved to be fruitful when Santa Fe left the fields of Roadrunner Little League in historic fashion — its first Senior League title after beating Roadrunner 10-1 on Sunday.
"The whole two weeks before the tournament, we were just practicing every single day — as much as we could to be ready," said King, Santa Fe's centerfielder. "We were going against teams that weren't nearly as good in Santa Fe and we wanted to be ready for what was coming up there."
Judging by the results, Santa Fe was more than ready. The team beat Roadrunner in a winner's bracket semifinal 17-0 and demolished Petroglyph Park 21-0 in the opening game. Santa Fe head coach Luis Bustos said his team played almost flawlessly over the three-day tournament.
"It was awesome," Bustos said. "They played really well against Roadrunner, but they played good the entire tournament."
Bustos credited much of the success to a group of players who have teamed together for several years. He said the group is mostly 15-year-olds composed of students from Santa Fe, Capital, Santa Fe Indian, St. Michael's and Pojoaque Valley high schools with a couple of middle school students sprinkled in. The team's chemistry, he said, was crucial to its success.
"The cool thing about these kids is they're like family," Bustos said. "They play together really well, they like each other and they come from tight-knight families."
The Senior team's success was emblematic of the overall success Santa Fe Little League accrued this season. League President Aaron Ortiz said the Juniors All-Star softball team won the state title, while the Majors squad won its first District 1 title in 18 years.
Ortiz added that a pair of players — Darrell Carbajal from the Majors team and Jaslene Ramirez from the Juniors softball team — will travel to Seattle for the T-Mobile Little League West Region Home Run Derby on Sunday.
"The kids were invested 100 percent into this season and all the credit goes to them," Ortiz said. "They are the ones working hard and they wanted it."
It wasn't an easy road for Little Leaguers this year, as they started the season in April instead of the traditional March start because of the coronavirus pandemic, which canceled last season. Most leagues managed to play 10 games before All-Star competition began, and they wore masks until the district tournaments began in July.
King said many of the outlets players had to keep their skills sharp — such as baseball academies like E&G Academy or local parks — weren't available. In some cases, they had to rely on parents or siblings to play catch to keep their arms in shape.
Then, some of the older players puled double duty by playing for their high schools as well as the Little League season. King said communication was extremely important so that Bustos and his coaching staff knew who would show up for practice in May and parts of June.
"We have a great coach who understands and he can be flexible with things if we just talked to him," King said. "He would probably let you go. It was just, he wanted you there [at practice] maybe two or three times a week just to get some work in with them."
