La Cueva walks over Storm in championship ballgame

ALBUQUERQUE — Good things happen when you throw strikes, whereas rarely do good things happen when you issue walks.

Such was the fate of the Cleveland High School baseball team Saturday evening, when back-to-back bases-loaded walks forced home the tying run and then winning run to hand the Class 5A championship trophy to La Cueva.

The Storm, seeking their first blue trophy in baseball, were holding a 2-1 lead as La Cueva (27-3) came to bat in the bottom of the seventh at Santa Ana Star Field.

Senior Joseph Stevenson walked the Bears’ Braiden Reynolds and then hit a batter. A balk moved the runners up a bag, and the Storm intentionally walked a batter to load the bases and set up a possible game-ending double play.

Stevenson, who earlier in the week pitched some high-quality innings, struck out Brayden Likar for the second out.

But he walked a pinch-hitter to tie the game, then did likewise to the Bears’ ninth hitter in their lineup.

La Cueva improved to 12-1 in its last 13 appearances in the final, which includes a 2017 win over the Storm.

Cleveland broke a 1-1 deadlock in the top of the sixth when Anthony Del Angel hit a one-out triple, and then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Silas Hilton.

La Cueva opened the scoring, but Cleveland made it 1-1 in the top of the third, after an infield single by Jarren Villa scored Gabe Nelson from third.

The Bears also beat Cleveland twice in the regular season — 5-0 in the Metro semifinals on March 22, and 5-4 in Rio Rancho on April 17.

May 17 SEMIFINALS

Cleveland 5, Rio Rancho 3: The Storm never trailed the Rams (25-5), beating their city foe for the second time in a row and splitting the four times they met this spring.

Sophomore reliever Xavier Vasquez induced a fly out with Rams at second and third in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.

The Storm scored the game’s first four runs. Jaden Davis singled home a run in the second.

In the third, with two runners on and two outs, Del Angel tripled to deep center, driving in two runs; he scored on the play when the ball was misplayed in the outfield and it was 4-0 Cleveland.

Casen Savage belted a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third, and Sean Vigil added a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit in half.

Nelson’s RBI double to right scored Davis in the top of the fourth for a 5-2 lead, and that’s the way it stayed until Rio Rancho got the first two batters aboard in the seventh with base hits off Stevenson, and the Storm turned to Vasquez, a lefty, who barely escaped the threat in front of a strong crowd at UNM.

In the other Friday semifinal, La Cueva knocked off Organ Mountain (24-6), 7-3.

May 16 QUARTERFINALS

Rio Rancho 6, Carlsbad 5: Trailing 5-4 as they came to bat in the bottom of the sixth, Dylan Archuleta started a one-out rally with a single to right and Sean Vigil, whose misplay of a single to center in the top of the inning had allowed the tiebreaking run to score, singled to left.

Cavemen (21-8) ace Hazen Wright struck out Jordan Sena for the third time in as many trips to the plate, but Bryson Martinez singled to left, plating Archuleta to make it 5-5 and send Vigil to third. After Martinez stole second, Wright plunked Wyatt Tinker to load the bases, sending leadoff batter Savage to the plate.

Savage, who had singled on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first and relieved starting pitcher Dean Ellison in the sixth, was then hit by a pitch to send Martinez home for a 6-5 lead.

In the seventh, with Jackson Roybal replacing Sena — ejected after the called third strike for something he said and unable to play in Friday’s semifinal — did his job aptly, and Savage only allowed a two-out single before getting a routine fly ball to Martinez in left field.

The Rams were outhit in the game, 9-7. Archuleta was the lone Ram with two hits. Ellison’s two-run triple helped stake the Rams to a 4-3 lead in the third inning.

Cleveland 7, Los Lunas 6: The Storm scored the game’s first seven runs, and starting pitcher Jarren Villa retired the first nine batters he faced, but the Storm knew they needed a dozen more outs.

That took longer than their fans hoped, as the first four Tigers in the fourth inning got hits and by the time Villa got the final out on a strikeout, it was then a 7-4 Storm lead.

The Tigers (19-11) weren’t done, using a walk, a double and an RBI single — all after Villa got the first two fifth inning batters out — and it was a precarious 7-6 Storm lead.

Since their four-run outburst in the second inning, the Storm bats were pretty quiet, with only Davis getting as far as third base. Once the Storm chased starter Matthew Castillo in the second inning, reliever J.J. Utash — one of three Utash brothers in the lineup — limited Cleveland to just three hits over the final five frames.

Stevenson relieved Villa in the sixth and allowed only an infield single to close out the win and earn a save.

Davis led the Storm attack, going 2 for 3 with three RBIs. Villa was 2 for 3; Brandon Hennessy was 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

La Cueva beat Eldorado 6-0 and Organ Mountain topped Sandia 5-3 in quarterfinal games from the upper half of the bracket.

Extra innings: Cleveland has won 24 or more games three times: The Storm were 25-5 in 2019, 24-8 in 2017 and 24-8 this season — each time ending their season in the championship game. (See below.)

Rams/Storm in championship baseball games

Year Outcome

2007 Rio Rancho 4, Mayfield 1

2009 Rio Rancho 6, La Cueva 5

2010 La Cueva 14, Rio Rancho 2

2013 Rio Rancho 4, Sandia 3

2016 Carlsbad 2, Rio Rancho 1

2017 La Cueva 10, Cleveland 4

2019 Volcano Vista 7, Cleveland 5

2023 Rio Rancho 9, Centennial 6

2024 La Cueva 3, Cleveland 2