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The Los Alamos Hilltopper baseball team picked up its first win of the 2013 season Tuesday at home, topping Pojoaque Valley.
Also Tuesday, the Hilltopper softball team dropped its season opener at Overlook Park to the Belen Eagles.
At Overlook Park, the Hilltoppers slugged it out with the Eagles, a Class 4A opponent, but the Eagles won the slugfest 11-9. Concurrently at Bomber Field, the Hilltoppers got their bats going early and often as they knocked off the Elks 12-2.
In the baseball game, Los Alamos (1-2) scored 4 runs in the bottom of the first inning and tacked on 4 in the third, answering the only 2 scores of the game for Pojoaque Valley.
The Hilltoppers closed out the game in 5 innings via the 10-run rule, scoring twice in both the fourth and fifth innings.
Last weekend, Los Alamos’ baseball team scored just one run in a doubleheader at Piedra Vista to open the season. Piedra Vista won both ends of the doubleheader handily.
The two games were the start of a tough week for the teams. The Hilltopper softball teams will play at Cleveland Thursday, then travel directly to Farmington for the start of the Piedra Vista Invitational.
Los Alamos’ baseball team will play at the always-tough St. Pius X Invitational, where it will take on El Paso, Texas, in the opening round. 

Jumping into the season with both feet is challenge enough as it is, but the Los Alamos Hilltopper softball team will be doing so without several of its key personnel.
Today, the Hilltoppers will open their season at Overlook Park, taking on the Class 4A Belen Eagles at 4 p.m.
That game will be the first of six contests in this first week of the regular season. Along with Belen, which started off the season with a big 12-4 victory over Sandia Prep Friday, Los Alamos will also see heavyweights in Cleveland, a well-respected Class 5A team and Piedra Vista, the 800-pound gorilla of Class 4A.
Los Alamos will have to do so without the services of Erin Kirk and Kiana Zerr, two regular starters, among others who are still playing basketball and could continue for two more weeks.
The absences have limited the Hilltoppers’ workouts a little bit, Los Alamos manager Roger Anaya said, but he said there’s been plenty to drill on during the preseason.
“We’ve been concentrating a lot on defense the last three or four weeks,” said Anaya, who is going into his fifth year steering the Hilltoppers. “Batting’s been a little challenging early this season because it’s been pretty cold, but as the weather has warmed up, we’ve had some good batting practice.”

Here are the schedules for the first two rounds of the Class 4A boys and girls basketball playoffs.

Girls

First round

(all games are Friday at home of top seed)

(16) Goddard at (1) Los Lunas, 7 p.m.
(9) Los Alamos at (8) Deming, 7 p.m.
(12) Grants at (5) Española Valley, 7 p.m.
(13) Miyamura at (4) St. Pius X, 7 p.m.
(14) Kirtland Central at (3) Santa Fe, 6 p.m.
(11) Albuquerque Academy at (6) Valencia, 7 p.m.
(10) Artesia at (7) Gallup, 6 p.m.
(15) Piedra Vista at (2) Roswell, 7 p.m.

Quarterfinals

(March 12, The Pit, times TBA)

Los Alamos-Deming winner vs. Goddard-Los Lunas winner
Grants-Española Valley winner vs. Miyamura-St. Pius winner
Kirtland Central-Santa Fe winner vs. Academy-Valencia winner
Artesia-Gallup winner vs. Piedra Vista-Roswell winner

Boys

First round

(all games are Saturday at home of top seed)

To pull a prank on Los Alamos Hilltopper wrestling fan and unofficial team mother Rita Sanchez, Brian Geyer found a “boot” for leg injuries at his house and limped in to see Sanchez.
He told Sanchez he had broken his leg the Friday before in a football game. Sanchez, not realizing it was all a gag, went straight to chapel and prayed for Geyer to be healed of his injury.
Upon finding out the whole thing was a joke, she dubbed him with the moniker “S.H.” It doesn’t mean “Super Hero,” either.
But Geyer had his heroic moment last weekend, earning the first individual state championship for the Hilltoppers since 1996.
“It feels really great,” Geyer said. “The last state title we had was when I was born.”
Geyer had a dominant performance at the state Class 4A tournament, held at the Star Center in Rio Rancho. He won five straight contests, including holding on in a nail-biting overtime bout against Los Lunas’ Mark Hussey, to claim the title at 182 pounds.
In the championship contest, Hussey went up 1-0 with two periods in the books and held a 3-2 advantage with under a minute remaining in regulation.