Lopez throws no hitter for Magdalena steers baseball

Last week was quite a noteworthy one for the Magdalena baseball team.

Not only did the Steers clinch the District 2-1A championship – winning every district game via the mercy rule – but pitcher Mathew Lopez chucked a no-hitter in one game and then they hit seven home runs in a double header.

With the runaway district title, the Steers (17-3, 7-0) clinched a spot in the New Mexico state baseball tournament semifinals to be played May 15 in Albuquerque.

“We’re in good shape, but I don’t want them to let their foot off the gas,” Magdalena coach Kyl Candelaria said. “Winning district is nice, but that’s not our goal. Our goal is to be the last team standing and we still have work to do.”

Well, the Steers were certainly putting in the work last week, starting with a 15-0 win April 21 over Cimarron and the gem Lopez tossed.

He faced 18 batters and struck 10 of them out. He allowed one walk and two others reached base via errors. No Rams advanced past first base.

“He was pitching good and throwing strikes,” Candelaria said. “And our defense was playing great. He really did a great job of pitching to weak contact that day. He just did a great job.”

For Lopez, it was just another day on the mound.

“There isn’t much to say. I threw strikes and I had a really good game,” he said. “My defense worked for me. I’ve been working on hitting the outside corner of the strike zone and throwing them junk, something they can swing at.”

That’s pretty much the pitcher’s job, Lopez said.

“As long as you just throw strikes as a pitcher and let the defense work for you, you should be all right,” he said. “And if they hit it, they hit it. I try and go for weak contact and not give them anything they can work with.”

It was such a quiet no-hitter that no one realized it had happened until later when the coach’s son, Josiah Candelaria, was looking at the scorebook and brought it to his dad’s attention.

“I don’t think even (Lopez) realized it, nobody said anything,” coach Candelaria said. “I think we always expect, any one of our pitchers can go out there and get a win. And offensively, we put the ball in play and get as many guys on base to help the pitcher out. But it kind of makes the day more enjoyable and not a whole lot to worry about when the pitcher is doing his job out there.”

And typical of the Steers’ program, there wasn’t a lot of fanfare among the players.

“The next day at practice, we brought it up,” coach Candelaria said. “We talked about it for minute, then kind of it was over and done with and on to the next.”

Well, the next happened to be Friday when the Steers trampled Grady 15-2 and 11-0 in game that only last 1½ innings.

“Our bats have really been on fire the last two-three weeks of the season,” coach Candelaria said. “Ever since we started district play our bats have come alive and we’re continuing to see the ball well right now.”

In the opener, Joseph Zamora hit two homers and Josiah Candelaria hit one and they combined for eight RBI.

In the second game, which ended after the Steers had scored eight in the top of the second after putting up a three-spot in the first, lead-off hitter Ayden Herschbach had two homers and Lopez and Josiah Candelaria each added one.

“They were legit,” Candelaria said of the home runs that all cleared the fence, five of them to center field. “Their park is not as big as ours, but it’s not like a Little League field.”