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BERNALILLO – Despite much shifting around of the Los Alamos Hilltopper softball team’s alignment, the Hilltoppers couldn’t find the hits when they needed them Wednesday.
Los Alamos opened up its District 2-4A season Wednesday against the Bernalillo Spartans, which may be the team to beat this season.
While Los Alamos did set itself up with some chances, it left the bases juiced in the third inning and left two runners in scoring position stranded in the fifth inning.
Those were two wasted opportunities against Bernalillo pitcher Demi Magdalena, quite possibly the best thrower in the district.
Los Alamos fell in the contest 4-2 at Bernalillo. Bernalillo scored twice in the fourth inning and pushed a big run across in the sixth inning, answering a 2-run rally heading into the final frame.
“That was a very tough pitcher we faced today, but we had opportunities against Bernalillo today,” Los Alamos manager Roger Anaya said.
Anaya elected to start Kiana Zerr in the pitcher’s circle. Zerr had only pitched in one game this season, but was up to the task in facing the Spartans.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper girls tennis team finished in second place behind the Farmington Scorpions at last weekend’s Taos Invitational tournament.
Los Alamos was second in the five-team tournament, hosted by former district rival Taos Saturday. Los Alamos finished ahead of Santa Fe Prep, Taos’ Tigers and Española Valley.
As they have been doing much of the season, the Hilltoppers liberally shifted around their lineup throughout the tournament, using four different players in the No. 1 singles slot. Three of the four players, Laura Whicker, Sidra Hsieh-Ratliff and Madeline Margevicius, posted straight-set victories at No. 1.
In the tournament, Los Alamos finished 4-1, losing only to three-time defending champion Farmington. Farmington and Los Alamos split the singles matches and won the No. 2 doubles match with Colleen Fitzsimmons/Susanna Lucido defeating Riley Coleman/Sydney Schumacher 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), but Los Alamos fell in the other two doubles contests, giving the Scorpions a 5-4 victory.
Farmington waltzed to its three consecutive Class 4A titles but the Scorpions and the Hilltoppers have been involved in close contests this season.
Against Farmington, Hsieh-Ratliff, an eighth grader, came back from an opening set loss to defeat sophomore Liza Briody-Pavlik 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to keep the match close.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper softball team went 1-2 in last weekend’s Kristin Griego Invitational tournament.
Los Alamos lost to host Rio Rancho in the opening round. It came back top Navajo Prep to move into the fifth-place game of the tournament before losing to Churchill, a team from Eugene, Ore.
The three tournament games were the final three games for the Hilltoppers before they start District 2-4A play. The Hilltoppers will be at Bernalillo Wednesday afternoon.
Los Alamos (3-9) fell to Rio Rancho 17-9 Friday morning. In that contest, Los Alamos pounded out 11 hits, one of its best totals of the season, but even that wouldn’t be enough to hang with the Rams (8-8), who are averaging about 8.2 runs per game.
The Rams scored 6 runs in the third inning and 4 in the sixth to win.
In the late game Friday, Los Alamos won 11-1 over Navajo Prep, a Class A-2A school to advance to the fifth-place contest. But Churchill’s Lancers (5-3) took Los Alamos’ final tournament game handily, earning a 12-2 win.
Los Alamos has dropped four of its last five contests and six of its previous eight heading into Wednesday’s game with Bernalillo. Bernalillo (5-0-1) is unofficially ranked No. 7 among Class 4A teams in the state and is the highest rated District 2-4A team in the statewide rankings.

It could be a crapshoot in District 2-4A baseball and softball this season, but both Los Alamos Hilltopper teams have as good a shot as anyone.
Both the Hilltopper baseball and softball teams open district play Wednesday, playing approximately 100 yards from each other. The teams will take on Bernalillo’s Spartans in single contests Wednesday in Bernalillo.
The district season consists of 12 games per team, with each head-to-head matchup consisting of a doubleheader hosted by one team and a single game hosted by the other team.
The Hilltopper baseball team was four games under .500 heading into Saturday’s doubleheader against Miyamura — results from those games weren’t available as of press time — but, despite managing just a 4-8 record, still have more wins than Santa Fe, Bernalillo and Capital put together.
District 2-4A could be shaping up to be a two-team race between the Hilltoppers and the Española Valley Sundevils (8-2). The Sundevils who play Aztec Monday before opening their district season Wednesday against Santa Fe, have outscored their opponents nearly 2-1 this season.