Naa'taanii falls short in Connie Mack tourney

(Times photo - Leigh T. Jimmie)

Naa'taanii's Rolando Chavarria rounds third base to score against the Piedra Vista Rivercats in the Connie Mack city tournament at Ricketts Park on July 15 in Farmington. Naa'taanii won, 5-2.

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The team, established by Dineh Benally, came into the Connie Mack city tournament with the No. 1 seed but fell 5-2 Monday night to the Strike Zone Cardinals from Farmington. The tournament was held from July 14 to 19.

Naa'taanii first played the Four Corners Thunder and won 7-4, putting them in the championship game against the Cardinals.

It was an intense game from the beginning. Naa'taanii took the lead at the bottom of third with a run by Joe Sena.

But after a defensive error in center field the Cardinals took over and scored all five of their runs in the top of the sixth inning.

With one chance left, Naa'taanii scored another run at the bottom of the 7th but it wasn't enough.

Naa'taanii head coach Tim Campos said it was a tough loss but the team has no reason to hold their heads down.

"If we would have won it we would have had the greatest story," Campos said. "But the play in the outfield was just a dagger. We just had a lot of misses that led us short."

The player of the game for Naa'taanii was Josh Walker from Albuquerque.

Walker had 10 strikeouts in five innings before the errors began.

Benally said Walker was the biggest change in the game and in Naa'taanii's near-perfect season.

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"Overall I think Josh Walker was the one that made the difference to where we're at," he said. "I think this year they played more for each other than in the past year. I did have talent but this group played more as a team. We came up real short."

Walker graduated from Rio Rancho High School this past spring and will play baseball at Howard Junior College in Big Springs, Texas.

The 17-year-old has had three years of Connie Mack experience but this season was a first with Naa'taanii.

"This whole experience was real nice." Walker said. "I blended in with the team surprisingly well. I made a lot of good friends there. 'Naa'taanii,' it means leader, it's a natural leader in life. We just try to play toward that. I think we played real hard because of it."

Walker closed the first game with the Thunder and immediately pitched in the championship game.

Walker said his team lost their intensity.

"We just started becoming a little routine," he said. "Every inning we went out there, after awhile we weren't going out there with the intensity and as alert that we should have been. Everyone just wasn't really ready to pick up the pieces. We kind of just thought it would end really easy, we were just kind of expecting it to go our way and it didn't."

Benally didn't coach Naa'taanii but was there to watch. He was suspended from coaching after he said Connie Mack officials accused him of playing an ineligible player last year.

Since Naa'taanii has been a part of Connie Mack they have come close, taking second or third place. Many thought this could be the year as the team held an 8-0 record going into the tournament.

Team chemistry was the theme of this year's success for Naa'taanii.

The team looked far and wide and recruited players from as far south as Artesia and Carlsbad and a couple from Albuquerque. A number of the players were from Gallup and some were from Window Rock, Phoenix and Kirtland.

John Tafoya, the catcher and a recent Gallup High School graduate, has played for Naa'taanii for three seasons.

He said a big plus for the team was the chemistry.

"We had a lot of talent on our team but the chemistry of us was just real tight," he said. "All of us loved each other. Beginning of season a lot of us told one another we just need to mesh together.

"I think this season our expectations were to win the city tournament but we fell a little short of that," he said. "We'll be ready for next year, we'll just come back next year and try to win it."

The initial focus behind Naa'taanii was to get Native players exposed to baseball.

Many of the players were not Navajo but some were. And all of them knew the meaning behind the name.

"I'm hoping that being a contender, top team in the area it will help promote the sport of baseball," Benally said. "Also get more youth to join to play baseball. One day I'd like to have an all-Navajo team compete. I'm hoping that this will promote baseball in Navajo country."

Rolando Chavarria from Artesia is not Native American but Benally wanted to give him the chance to experience Connie Mack.

Chavarria lived with a host family in Gallup and drove back and forth from Farmington for the games. Since June he's only spent about five days back home.

"It was really different from high school ball," he said. "Once you get in the tournament it's a whole different ball game. It felt good. We had a bunch of good players. We all got along really well. Being a part of the team was exciting and fun."

Many players and their families did a lot of traveling over the last week and Benally was grateful to them. He was also grateful to Jacoby Ellsbury who donated wristbands, cleats, bags and gloves to the team.

Being the No. 1 seed and the favorite, Naa'taanii gained a lot of fans every night they played and that made Campos thankful.

"It was an honor to be able to lead these young men this year," he said.

Camos said another coach, Russ Le Platt, helped a lot.

"Being a part of Naa'taanii, trying to build up the name, I think the name represents something a lot bigger than us as a team," Campos said. "Someone who sustains leadership. It just brings me some great pride. We're known nationally now and we're respected."

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