Prep baseball: Rio Rancho holds off pesky Piedra Vista; St. Pius and Academy to play for 4A title

May 12—(Centennial-Sandia photo gallery)

An unpredictable Week 2 of the Class 5A state baseball tournament almost produced the most stunning result of all on Friday.

Piedra Vista, the 12 seed and a team on the verge of becoming an unlikely state finalist, had the tying run at third base with nobody out in the seventh inning. But Rio Rancho reliever Casen Savage struck out the side, and the top-seeded Rams survived a huge upset threat by the Panthers in a tense 6-5 semifinal victory at the Jennifer Riordan Chase Kindness Sports Complex.

At noon Saturday at Santa Ana Star Field, it'll be the Rams (26-2-2) and No. 6 Centennial (26-4) for the 5A title. The Hawks pounded Sandia 11-1 in five innings in the other semi.

"I love the pressure, I'm all about that stuff," Savage said after his clutch save.

In a 4-4 game in the bottom of the fifth, University of New Mexico signee Vascon Smith hit a two-run double for the Rams.

Piedra Vista (18-13) cut the deficit to 6-5 on an RBI triple by Josh Wulfert, the first batter Savage faced after taking over from Dylan Archuleta — Rio Rancho's first relief pitcher — in the top of the seventh.

The Panthers had second and third with nobody out, in fact, but were unable to put a ball in play from there.

"They hadn't seen a good curveball all day," Rio Rancho coach Ron Murphy said. "And Casen coming in ... it threw them off."

The Rams are chasing their first state title since 2013. They've only lost one game all year to a team from New Mexico: Volcano Vista, in the regular-season finale two weeks ago. Oddly enough, Rio Rancho has only been involved in three, one-run decisions all season, but all three have come in the last two weeks.

"We were very fortunate to beat a good team like that," Murphy said.

Centennial, meanwhile, spotted Sandia (20-10) the first run, but steadily took control. Jake Estep's two-RBI single in the bottom of the first put the Hawks ahead. Centennial, leading 4-1, blew it open with five runs in the fourth, including Santiago Garcia's two-run triple and Brynden Frausto's two-RBI single.

Garcia ended it with a two-run double in the fifth to enact the 10-run mercy rule. Aaron Gutierrez only surrendered two hits to the Matadors, who were unusually quiet offensively.

Rio Rancho and Centennial both are in the state final for the first time since 2016.

The Rams are going to be able to throw ace Seth Lee on Saturday if they wish, since he threw so few pitches on Thursday in the quarterfinals against Rio Grande.

RIO RANCHO 6, PIEDRA VISTA 5

Piedra Vista 211 000 1 — 5 8 1

Rio Rancho 400 020 x — 6 7 1

Batteries: PV, Dax Vigil and Keenan Bejar. RR, Kai Fitak, Dylan Archuleta (5), Casen Savage (7) and Josh Boyer. Win: Archuleta. Loss: Vigil. Leading hitters: RR, Vascon Smith 2-3, 2B, 3RBIs.

CENTENNIAL 11, SANDIA 1 (5 inn.)

Sandia 100 00 — 1 2 1

Centennial 220 52 — 11 10 3

Batteries: S, Justin Peterson, Talan Barraza (2) and Danny Santiago. C, Aaron Gutierrez and Jason Ortega. Win: Gutierrez. Loss: Peterson: Leading hitters: C, Santiago Garcia 2-4, 3B, 2B, 4RBIs; Brynden Frausto 2-3, 2RBIs.

CLASS 4A:CLASS 4A: For the third straight season, it will be St. Pius (21-5) and Albuquerque Academy (18-10) playing in the season's final game.

The second-seeded Sartans, backed by two home runs and five RBIs from another Lobo signee, Gene Trujillo — who has been white-hot at the dish, with six homers in four St. Pius playoff games — rallied late to beat No. 3 Valley 12-10. Next door, the eighth-seeded Chargers received a sterling pitching performance from juniorr Satish Raichur, who went the distance and fired a 1-hitter in a 6-1 victory over No. 5 Artesia.

The Sartans and Chargers play at 9 a.m. Saturday at Santa Ana Star Field.

"It's unmatched," Trujillo said of games against Academy. "I think we have the best rivalry in the state, and it's awesome playing them."

Academy won state two years ago, but the Sartans are the defending champions.

"Three years in a row," Raichur said. "That (will) be a great championship game."

St. Pius and Valley staged a crazy semifinal that also included a lengthy delay for a mound issue in the first inning. (There were similar mound issues, and delays, on the two other fields being used Friday at the Riordan Complex.)

Trujillo's first home run, a three-run blast to center, put St. Pius in front 6-4 in the second inning. Ricky Henderson of Valley hit a three-run blast of his own in the next inning for a 7-6 Vikings edge.

Valley later led 9-6 in the fifth, before St. Pius scored twice.

It was 10-8 Valley (21-9) in the sixth. In the bottom half for the Sartans, Ben Martinez singled off reliever Caeden Jojola, and then Trujillo launched his second homer over the right-field wall to square the game 10-all.

Cohen Mulville's RBI triple moments later gave the Sartans the lead at 11-10, and they added another run on a sacrifice fly headed to the seventh.

"It was a fight," Trujillo said. "We knew it was gonna be a fight, and we just kept punching throughout the entire game, no matter what."

Ryan Williams had three RBIs for Academy in its win, and Raichur retired the final 11 Artesia batters he faced in his 1-hitter. He only surrendered a double in the fourth, the inning in which the Bulldogs (xx-x) scored their only run.

"Just being competitive and letting my instincts kick in in the moment," Raichur said, adding, "I just felt the confidence grow and I felt them get down and it's all I needed."

Academy scored four of its runs — on just two hits — in the third inning.

The Chargers and Sartans met in the regular season, on March 3 at St. Pius' tournament. The Sartans won, 4-1.

But Academy is getting hot after two upset wins in the last two days, including a victory Thursday in the quarterfinals against No. 1 Grants.

"We were definitely overlooked being an 8 seed," Saichur said. "I'm happy that we're in the 'ship, and I think we have a chance of taking it, even as an 8 seed."'

For Saichur, Friday marked his first complete game of the season. He is Academy's catcher when he's not pitching.

ST. PIUS 12, VALLEY 10

Valley 313 021 0 — 10 9 2

St. Pius 240 024 x — 12 10 1

Batteries: V, Alex Gilliam, Caeden Jojola (6), Jayden Martinez (6) and Camden Barth. SP, Ruben Jepson, Jacob Maes (5), Caden Bischoff (6), Evan Taylor (6) and JoFrank Ortiz. Win: Taylor. Loss: Jojola. Leading hitters: SP, Gene Trujillo 2-3, 2HR, 5RBIs. V, Ricky Henderson 2-2, HR, 2B, 3RBIs; Jojola 2-2, 2RBIs.

ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY 6, ARTESIA 1

Academy 004 000 2 — 6 6 0

Artesia 000 100 0 — 1 1 3

Batteries: AA, Satish Raichur and Ryan Williams, Art, Jack Byers, Diego Morales (4) and Frankie Galindo. Win: Raichur. Loss: Byers. Leading hitters: AA, Matthew Delaney 2-4, 2R.

CLASS 3A: No. 1 Sandia Prep (19-6) and No. 10 Ruidoso (15-11) will meet at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Riordan Complex in the final game of the state tournament. The Sundevils held off No. 4 Cobre 5-3 late Friday night; the Warriors routed East Mountain 12-2 in the other semifinal.

For Sandia Prep, freshman Josh Riordan pitched 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Riordan is the son of Jennifer Riordan, whom the complex is named after.

All the runs in this game came in the first two innings.

The Sundevils scored three times in the bottom of the second to take the lead for good. Lucas Lemons scored a pair of runs on a single. He also hit a two-run home run in the first for Sandia Prep.

Cobre scored all its runs in the top of the first inning.

CLASSES 2A, 1A: No. 1 Logan (14-4 over Mesilla Valley) and No. 3 Melrose (14-5 over Magdalena) will play in the Class 1A title game at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Riordan Complex. The 2A final follows at 1 p.m., matching up No. 7 Tularosa (11-8 over Loving) and No. 4 Rehoboth Christian (7-0 over No. 1 Santa Rosa).