Jul. 1—Until a soggy Wednesday night at Alto Park, the last time a team from Santa Fe made it as far as the Little League Baseball Majors State Tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo was making his Premier League debut, the world was saying goodbye to the Concorde, the Department of Homeland Security was just being founded and Arnold Schwarzenegger was being voted into office as California’s governor.
The year was 2003, a time long before any of the players on the current Santa Fe Little League All-Star team were born, a time when Santa Fe still had three separate Little Leagues instead of just one.
“Yeah, coach was telling us about that before the game,” said infielder Darrell Carbajal, a veritable free-swinging, knuckle-dragging monster at the plate and the undisputed star of the capital city’s youth baseball movement.
The 12-year-old launched two solo home runs and nearly hit another in an 18-0 win over the Pojoaque All-Stars in Wednesday’s District 1 championship game, shortened to four innings due to the mercy rule. He also worked three scoreless frames on the mound, striking out six of the 12 batters he faced in earning the win.
Lest anyone forget, it was Carbajal who won the league’s home run derby in the spring, a win that landed him a $100 gift card to a local sporting goods store. He said he planned to spend it all on sunflower seeds, a quote that got the attention of a national seeds distributor.
Bigs seeds sent him an assortment of every flavor it manufactures.
“I think we can win this whole thing, you know?” said Carbajal, who as he spoke was surrounded by his entire team.
Most of them nodded in silent approval at their leader’s words.
“Let’s just worry about the state tournament, and then we can see where it goes,” said first baseman Finn Evans.
It was Evans who relieved Carbajal on the mound in the final inning. By then the only suspense was whether Pojoaque could ruin the shutout. Pojoaque left the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the third but never got so much as a hit. Two of their baserunners reached on infield errors while the third drew a walk.
It didn’t really matter. Santa Fe scored four times in the top of the first, getting an RBI double from Carbajal and an RBI fielder’s choice from Jayden Trujillo to take the early lead.
Carbajal made it 6-0 with a bomb over the left-field fence in the third. After that came a marathon fourth in which Santa Fe sent 17 batters to the plate, scoring a dozen runs on 12 hits. The half-inning took roughly 30 minutes and allowed every player on the team to finish the game with at least two plate appearances.
Not since the 2003 Santa Fe American All-Stars won the District 1 title has a team from Santa Fe gone on to state. In fact, that year was the final go-round of a sustained run of dominance for Santa Fe. From 1984 to 2003, 17 of the 20 District 1 champs hailed from here — and none since.
“It’s an honor to be a part of something that finally puts this city back in the state tournament,” said Little League coach Andrew Carbajal. “Long overdue, honestly. The boys, the people behind all this — they’ve all worked so hard for it.”
Santa Fe Little League will host the Majors State Tournament starting July 17 at Alto Park. It will be the seventh time Santa Fe has hosted the tournament, the last time in 2009.
“I don’t know if we’re good enough to go to the [Little League] World Series, but we’ll try,” said Santa Fe’s Aidan Cedillo, the team’s starting shortstop and a player who, by all accounts, will spend the next couple of weeks breaking in a new glove. “I hit the ball OK [Wednesday] but my defense was bad. I have a new glove, but I’ve been using a softball one because the last one bent the fingers all backwards.”
After watching his players talk their way through postgame interviews, Andrew Carbajal said he’d use the coming weeks to get his players ready for what he hopes will be a historical next step.
“This team can hit and we can play some defense, so we’ll see,” he said. “But waiting until [July] 17th is going to be hard for these guys. We’re talking a lot of practice, a lot of time together. But, you know, we’ve waited a long time around here just to get this far. We’ll be OK.”
NOTES
Wednesday’s game was briefly interrupted by a toddler wandering into the outfield. The child appeared to be trying to say something to the Pojoaque right fielder. … Santa Fe American’s 13-9 win over Roswell Noon Optimist in 1996 represents the city’s only Little League state championship in the majors division. Santa Fe National lost in the finals to Noon Optimist in 2002, and National was beaten by Roswell Lions Hondo in the 1962 title game. … There was no state tournament in 2020 due to the pandemic. … Carlsbad Shorthorn has won the last two state tournaments. Before then, teams from Albuquerque had won the championship nine of the previous 10 years. … The state champion advances to the Southwest Region finals in Waco, Texas, from Aug. 5-11. The regional champion then heads to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.