Today's Sports

The St. Pius X Sartans stunned the Piedra Vista Panthers in the championship game of the 2013 Class 4A baseball playoffs.

The Sartans nipped the Panthers, the three-time defending champions and top-seeded squad this season in the title game Saturday at Lobo Field in Albuquerque, 7-6.
To get to the championship round, St. Pius, the No. 7 seed in the tournament, had to knock off No. 2 Goddard in the quarterfinals — which the Sartans did by a score of 8-7 — then top sixth-seeded Albuquerque Academy, St. Pius’ bitter rival. St. Pius pummeled Academy’s Chargers 21-3 to make the championship game.
Piedra Vista, of course, topped Los Alamos 17-2 in the quarterfinals Thursday, knocking the Hilltoppers out of the tournament, then came back to thump Santa Teresa 14-1 before being upset in pursuit of its fourth straight title.
For the Sartans (20-9), it was their first 4A championship since 2003 and only the fourth time since 2001 that a team from Farmington won the title.
 

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Two cases of Spanish being banned at New Mexico high school games were examples of a disturbing pattern that needs to be monitored and addressed, perhaps with lawsuits, a civil rights group said Monday.
The League of United Latin American Citizens has heard of a least five cases of high school players being ordered this school year not to speak Spanish during games and matches, according to Ralph Arellanes, the state director of LULAC.
“The New Mexico state constitution clearly protects Spanish and Native (American) languages so outlawing (them) in any way, we believe, is against the law and we’re not going to stand for it,” Arellanes said.
New Mexico Military Institute’s Jose Gonzales was penalized a point for speaking Spanish earlier this month after an on-court official warned him twice to speak only English during a state championship singles match.
Sally Marquez, executive director of the New Mexico Activities Association, the governing board for high school sports in the state, said the official was warned not to repeat that action, even though the official was within his right since the association was following the United States Tennis Association rule book during the finals.

David Kratzer had the best prediction in last week’s Pace Race.
The Pace Race, hosted by the Atomic City Roadrunners, was May 14. The race started at Piñon Park in White Rock and featured a staggered start.
Kratzer, running on the 3-mile course, finished with a prediction error of just 3 seconds. He needed an excellent prediction to hold off Bill Rice, who was off by just 7 seconds on the long course.
The best prediction on the 1-mile course was Emilee Jones, who missed by 16 seconds.
Other top predictions at the Pace Race included Makaeka Jones (17 seconds), Morgan Jones (18 seconds) and Georgia Pedicini (27 seconds).
The next Pace Race will be Tuesday starting on West Jemez Road about three-quarters of a mile from the Back Gate. Two different courses will be available for runners and walkers.
More information on the Pace Race and the Atomic City Roadrunners is available by calling 672-9243 or 672-1639. 

ALBUQUERQUE – There was a huge target on the collective back of the Los Alamos Hilltopper girls track and field team this season.

It would be the Aztec Tigers that would find the mark.

The impressive four-year reign of the Hilltoppers at the Class 4A state meet came to an end Saturday at the University of New Mexico Track and Field Complex. The Tigers, the first team in many years to rival the Hilltoppers’ roster depth, claimed the 4A state title with a total of 76 points.

The Hilltoppers managed a total of 59 points, not enough to hang on to their title.

Going into the meet, Los Alamos had little margin of error to grab a fifth consecutive title, which would have put the team in even more elite company than it’s already associated with, but a good Friday for Aztec and a tough Friday for the Hilltoppers put them in a hole they’d never get out of.

But even after a rough day one of the meet, the Hilltoppers worked themselves back into title contention on Championship Saturday.