Spartans’ momentum halted

Spencer Patterson

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 10:35 a.m.

Coming off a second-place finish at last week's St. George (Utah) Invitational, Cimarron-Memorial's American Legion baseball team hoped its momentum would carry over to this week's Timet Invitational Tournament.

Early in Thursday's game with Tucson (Ariz.) squad Catalina Foothills, it became clear that would not be the case. The tournament's wood-bat format combined with the effective pitching of left-hander Tim Hatfield to hold the Spartans' offense in check in a 3-2 Foothills win at Burkholder Park.

"We gave them four days off after St. George, so we hadn't even taken batting practice, not to mention swinging wood bats," Cimarron coach Kevin Kohler said. "We hit a lot of pop-ups, but you want to hit it on the ground and make them make the plays."

The Spartans did not produce a hit until the fifth inning, when Matt Wagner ended the drought with a one-out double. Hatfield finished with a complete-game four-hitter, striking out two and issuing no walks.

The locals spotted the Falcons a 3-0 lead in the second inning, when a throwing error by shortstop Ryan Ruiz paved the way for three unearned runs off Cimarron starter Garrett Kohler.

The Spartans took advantage of a pair of errors by Foothills catcher Bryan Updyke to plate a pair of runs in the sixth, but were unable to come up with the equalizer in the seventh.

The loss evened Cimarron's record at 5-5, not bad for a program which lost most veterans from its 2000 Legion state title team. Three graduated seniors -- catcher Robert Grana, second baseman Vito Casolari and Ruiz -- opted to remain with the club this summer, as the Spartans look to earn a return to the state tournament and a chance to repeat.

"If we can win enough games to get there, we think we can be a factor." Kevin Kohler said.

Timet host Basic fell to Bonanza 2-0 in Wednesday's tournament opener. Bengals' starter Kameron Francom held the Wolves to a single hit in the contest...

After three weeks of varsity competition, Pahrump Valley has folded its Legion squad, bringing the number of Southern Nevada teams to 16...

Play at both the Timet Invitational and Durango's Joyce Stoker Memorial Invitational continues today, with a full slate of games Saturday and Sunday in both events.