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EDITORIAL: The Ravens have done it again. Five years ago, with its 11-0 victory, the Rio Grande High School baseball team broke a 31-game winning streak by Eldorado High School. That was the game, Ravens coach Orlando Griego says now, that "showed we have a program to be reckoned with." That was the game "that put us on the map."
On Monday, the Ravens showed they're still a force to be reckoned with— and they're definitely still on that map.
With a 17-8 victory, the Ravens put the kibosh on an even more impressive winning streak when it defeated La Cueva High School's Bears.
The top-ranked Bears had gone into the game undefeated since 2002. Just two days before facing the Ravens, the Bears were on top of the world.
Their double-header defeat of Highland High's Hornets had put the Bears at 70 consecutive wins— surpassing the national high school baseball streak of 68 consecutive victories, a record held since 1966 by a school in New York.
No doubt the Bears are still on top of the world. They've still got the historic winning streak record. They have the memory of more than 1,000 fans who saw them break the record, which must be especially sweet.
Which is what makes this win so equally sweet for the Ravens, who just four days before the Bears game had lost to Cibola in an upset Griego called the worst in his 10 seasons in the South Valley. But as Griego philosophically told a reporter: "My mom always tells me that it's darkest before the dawn."
The Bears grabbed the national record, but the Ravens nabbed the Farmers Albuquerque Public Schools Invitational in a performance that's been called impressive and relentless. Even La Cueva's senior catcher weighed in on the Ravens' behalf: "Give them all the credit in the world," Zach Arnett said. "Every time we scored some runs, they came out and did, too."
Congratulations to Rio Grande's winning team, coach and program.
Let's just say it's a good thing the Bears got into that record book before they let the Ravens onto their field.
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