8/11/2012-The most successful baseball season in the history of Las Cruces ended yesterday with the Vaqueros falling to the Alpine Cowboys in the deciding game of the championship series.

While many have used the words dream season to describe this years addition of the Vaqueros the reality is that this team could flat out win. They went 9 and 5 in May, 16 and 12 in June, 16 and 12 in July, and 3-2 and August and were the first Vaqueros team to not have a losing month for the length of a season.

An even bigger accomplishment was that the Vaqueros were the only team in the entire Pecos League that did not have a losing record against any of their opponents finishing with a 6 and 4 record against Alpine, a 7 and 6 record against Roswell, a 10 and 6 record against Santa Fe, a 9 and 7 record against Trinidad, and an incredible 13 and 7 record against White Sands. On the field several players had what could also be considered to be dream seasons as several team records were not just broken but beaten multiple times by multiple players. RF Logan Lotti hit 23 homeruns destroying Clint Strouds old record of 15 in a season while Pecos League MVP Steve Rinaudo set new team records for Runs (99) , Hits (110) , Doubles (24), and Triples (9). The previous records were 78 hits, 52 runs, 14 doubles, and 2 triples showing that Rinaudo had the greatest season of any Vaquero ever.

On the mound, Justin Yackee set a new team record for appearances with 35 and Derek Johnson was the first player in team history to throw 2 complete games.

For the fans, the season felt to good to be true also. During the All-Star game a fan approached pitching coach Mike Nassisi and mentioned that seeing 5 Vaqueros on the field at the same time felt like a dream and could not be real. Nassisis answer was Why can't it be both?

I guess in the end, having it be both is what this team and this league is about.

Eric Tellez is a contributing writer to LasCrucesVaqueros.com