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Home / News / Luna’s Ball hits walkoff winner

Luna’s Ball hits walkoff winner

April 5 2022

Luna softball hosting Monday, Tuesday

By Dave Kavanaugh
Luna Community College

Absidy Ball’s two-RBI home run in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted Luna Community College softball to a 5-4 walkoff win over Trinidad State on Monday evening (April 4) at Cowgirl Field.

Luna had trailed 4-3 going into the final frame. Ciara Cruz led off the at-bat by reaching base ahead of Ball, who delivered her first hit in timely fashion.

Luna’s Absidy Ball gets into batting mode as her teammates cheer her on from the home dugout Monday afternoon. Ball would end the day by hitting a walkoff home run.

Raegan Shackelford got Luna on the board in the first inning with an RBI double to score Lexi Johnson, who’d been moved to second by Nicole Chavez’s sacrifice bunt. In the second, Luna took the lead, tying it on Mya Ortega’s RBI single and then Jenai Shanta’s slide nto home on a wild pitch.

The Trojans exploited an error to tie the game and then regained the lead, 4-3, on Sydney Loyet’s RBI single in the top of the third.

Good defense and pitching – Madelyn Johnson had a steady start for Luna – kept the margin intact going into the final inning.

Luna’s Bree Maldonado slides in to second base ahead of a tag by Trinidad State’s Ashley Burns.

Trinidad State, which won the Region IX tournament last spring, took a competitive game one of the Monday twinbill, 5-2.

Trinidad led by four going into the bottom of the sixth when Cruz drove in Ortega to make it 5-2. The Riders had two baserunners on with the potential tying run up to bat but got stranded by pitcher Kirstin Ferguson. It was a solid complete-game effort for Charmaine Othole.

“These ladies turned in two solid performances and competed the whole day,” said first-year head coach Randall Krutsch. “It’s exciting to see them play hard.”

Luna’s Lexi Johnson and Chrislen Archuleta encourage each other between their at-bats in Monday’s series opener. Archuleta, a graduate of West Las Vegas, started the game at catcher

The series was to resume at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The Luna baseball team and coaches T.C. Nusser and Harry Estep will wrap up their home schedule with a three-game set vs. Otero Junior College on Saturday and Sunday. First pitch both days is set for noon at Brandt Park on the New Mexico Highlands University campus.