Premature celebration, umpire confusion sends state softball title game to extra innings

LOS LUNAS — A wild, high-stakes controversy sent the game into extra innings, but the East Mountain Little League 9-11 softball team fell just short of a state title Monday, dropping a 7-4 decision to Santa Rosa in eight innings at the Enchanted Little League Complex.

East Mountain rallied from an early three-run deficit to force extra frames, surviving a chaotic sequence of events in the bottom of the sixth inning that left both teams, the umpires, and the crowd temporarily stunned.

Trailing 4-3 with one out and runners on first and third in their final turn at bat, East Mountain drove in the tying run. However, with an out on the play, the Santa Rosa All-Stars, believed the second out represented the final out of the game, began celebrating an apparent state championship victory.

The baseline celebration triggered a massive confusion over the official out count, leading to three separate game stoppages as coaches and umpires debated whether the situation stood at two outs or three. The umpiring crew ultimately ruled that East Mountain still had an out to spare, validating the tying run and sending the game into the seventh inning tied at 4-4.

“It’s a roller coaster, and emotions were high on both sides,” East Mountain head coach Jared Gastelum said of the extended delays. “Each coach is fighting for their own team. We’re doing everything we can to win, so are they. It’s no hard feelings for the other team, but I can’t be more proud of these girls, the way they bounced back from being down 3-0 at one point, and again at 4-1, and coming back and just tying it up to give us a chance.”

Neither team could crack home plate in the seventh inning. Santa Rosa finally broke the deadlock in the top of the eighth, pushing three runs across the board to take a 7-4 lead. East Mountain was unable to mount a second comeback in the bottom half of the frame.

Santa Rosa controlled the early momentum, manufacturing two runs in the top of the first inning and adding another in the second to build a quick 3-0 advantage. East Mountain broke through in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-1, setting up the dramatic sixth-inning rally.

The championship game appearance marked a massive leap forward for the East Mountain program, which went winless in its state tournament appearance last season.

“Couldn’t be more proud of them,” Gastelum said. “The work they put in over the last month and a half, there’s just no words to what they accomplished. Last year we made it to state but went 0-2, and our goal this year was, hey, win one game at state. We ended up making it to the title game and just came up a little short.”

Gastelum, who is in his sixth year coaching in the league and his first year guiding the All-Star squad, noted that the heartbreak will serve as a foundation for the program’s future.

“We could only get better from here, and this should be something that we can build on and come back next year and take it,” Gastelum said. “We’re good enough, and they know it, and the coaches know it. It’s just a few tweaks here and there, and we could really run this tournament.”

The 2026 East Mountain Little Leage 9-11 All-Stars include Mya Ortiz-Trujillo, Tegan Moore, Adaline Lucero, Katie Darnell, Elena Gardiner, Olivia Mora, Cali Hawk, Sophia Romero, Aria Rivera, Emma Mora, Timber Autrey, Maelynn Gastelum and coaches Jared Gastelum, Eric Rivera and Krista River