Matadors end Rams’ baseball run, 9-5

ALBUQUERQUE — A late-inning comeback wasn’t in the cards Friday afternoon for the Rio Rancho High School baseball team, as its season ended with a 9-5 loss to Sandia in a Class 5A semifinal game at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness sports complex.

A five-run fifth turned a deadlock at 4 into a 9-4 lead for the Matadors, who lost the 2013 championship game to the Rams.

The second-seeded Rams (23-7) grabbed an early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first, with two of those coming off an RBI-single by Matt Cook.

Sandia scored a run in the second and two more in the third to tie it.

Each team scored once in the fourth, and the Matadors broke it open with that five-run outburst in the fifth, with Rams lefty Logan Sunstrom charged with all five runs.

He was the fourth of six Rams pitchers taking the mound, giving up three hits and two walks in that fateful inning. The first two batters in the fifth reached base, but Sunstrom got the next two Matadors out, appearing to have stifled the threat, only to have a single, hit batter, walk and a double result in a crooked number in that frame.

The Rams’ final run scored in the sixth on Wyatt Tinker’s sacrifice fly.

Tinker extended his hot hitting in the postseason, going 2 for 3 with two RBIs. Cook was 2 for 4 and also had two RBIs.

Sandia advanced to Saturday’s championship game vs. its 2-5A foe, Eldorado. The Matadors were 0-3 vs. the Eagles before the contest to decide who gets the blue trophy. And to show you how unpredictable baseball can be, the Matadors beat the Eagles handily, 13-4, for their first baseball title since 1980.

Sandia lost its previous three championship-game appearances, 7-0 to Carlsbad in 2022, 4-3 to Rio Rancho in 2013 and 9-3 to Carlsbad in 2012.

Eldorado, the state’s premier power in the 1990s, had split its last two championship game appearances, beating Volcano Vista 9-0 in 2015 after falling to La Cueva, 5-4, in 2014.

Rams 5, Centennial 3The Rams defeated No. 7 Centennial Thursday morning to advance into the Friday semifinals.

The Rams took a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Tinker was hit by a pitch and Dean Ellison hit an opposite-field double to left, sending Tinker to third.

Noah Serna then sent a bullet through the box into center field, scoring Tinker and Ellison. Cook struck out for the second out, and with Jackson Roybal batting, Serna was nabbed trying to steal third.

The Rams added to their lead in the fourth. Roybal drew a walk and Brayden Bustillos ran for him. Sunstrom sacrificed him to second, and Alex Gallegos sent him home with a single to right.

The Hawks (22-7) tied the game at 3-all in the fifth, when third baseman Cook dropped a popup, setting the stage for a game-tying, three-run homer by Cole Alons.

With the game still knotted in the bottom of the sixth, Gallegos stroked an RBI single to give the Rams a 4-3 lead; Tinker added an RBI-double to make it 5-3.

Gallegos, who also made a great defensive play, knocked in the run to make it 3-0 and then drove home the run to make it 4-3.

“I just did my job, keep the game going, do the best I can,” he said.

Was it his best game of his junior campaign? “Yes, sir. Probably,” was all he had to say.

Sunstrom pitched two scoreless innings in relief to earn the win. Senior Brandon Segal went the first five innings, scattering five hits and striking out two. The three runs he was charged with were unearned.

Ellison led the hit parade, going 3 for 3 with an intentional walk to lead the Rams.

The matchup with Sandia was the final high school game for six Rams seniors: Adrian Varoz, Adan Bustos, Santiago Gallegos, Segal, Serna and Roybal.

As a team, the Rams had performed two games better in 2024, coach David Gomez’s first season at the helm, when it turned in a record of 25-5, knocked out of the semifinals with a 5-3 loss to Cleveland.

“I am very proud of this team getting as far as they did,” Gomez said. “We lost many key players en route to a district championship and a 2 seed at state.

“We had many players step into roles and excel. Our senior leadership was what drove us forward; we (also) had key performances from our 11th and 10th grade classes,” he added. “The future is very bright for the Rams — the boys dud their best to make the city, school and program proud.”