Rio Rancho baseball team hosts Volcano Vista for Metro title Saturday morning

Rams coach Ron Murphy has been bothered by back problems, but it’s somewhat alleviated by his team’s diamond success thus far. Herron photo)

The second-seeded Rio Rancho Rams advanced into Saturday’s APS Metro Championships title game at 10 a.m. vs. visiting Volcano Vista after a victory over Sandia Friday afternoon.

The No. 4 Hawks (8-2) pulled off a 3-2 upset at defending 5A champ and No. 1 Metro seed La Cueva Friday afternoon.

The Rams’ lone Metro championship came in 2013 — marking the last season they won the state championship, too. The Rams lost the 2017 Metro championship game to La Cueva and in 2019, the last time it was played, lost to Cleveland.

What many baseball fans had hoped to be an all-Rio Rancho championship game in the Metro tournament was short-circuited when the sixth-seeded Storm lost their quarterfinal match-up Wednesday afternoon at No. 3 seed Sandia.

The second-seeded Rams won their game that day. Had they lost, they still had a chance to meet the Storm in a consolation game, but now must wait until this week to possibly face Cleveland in the Rio Rancho/Sal Puentes Tourney at RRHS.

Rams keep rolling

Rams 7, Sandia 4: Sophomore leadoff hitter Casen Savage went 4 for 4, with a pair of bunt singles, and Elijah Castañeda hit a solo home run to help the Rams advance.

Senior southpaw Devon Alvarado (4-0) spotted the Matadors (7-4) two runs in the first, but the Rams (12-1) tied the game after single tallies in the first and second.

The Matadors used a triple and error to take a 3-2 lead in the third, and the Rams knotted it at 3 on a Savage single, Sandia error, advancing Savage to third, and a bunt single by Dominick Priddy.

A three-run fifth, highlighted by a Noah Braunschweiger triple, gave the Rams the lead to keep.

Sandia plated its final run in the sixth and Castañeda’s lead-off dinger in the bottom of that frame ended the scoring.

“Like we said the other day, we won the first game by going long ball. We hit everything in the gaps,” coach Ron Murphy said. “We won the second game by going small-ball. Today, we decided to go half-and-half — we just wanted to change things up a bit.

“Hitting the ball well got us back in the game; our small-ball won the game.”

As for Savage, Murphy said, “He’s a gamer.”

The Rams faltered early in the game, leaving the bases full in the first two innings.

“My biggest excitement was we went down 2-0 right away and we responded,” Murphy said. “We did a good job.

“Our kids play hard. It’s a fun team to not only coach, but it’s a fun team to coach,” Murphy said.

The win over Sandia was his 599th career victory.

The Rams and Matadors were originally scheduled to meet March 8 at RRHS, but snow on the field made it necessary to postpone it to March 30. So the longtime foes got a preview of each other Friday in the Metro.

Rio Rancho 4, St. Pius X 2: Murphy is a proponent of “small ball,” and that’s what worked for his Rams Wednesday afternoon as they moved into a Metro semifinal.

The host Rams spotted the Sartans (7-2) a pair of unearned runs in the second inning when southpaw starter Jason Parker (4-0 fielded a routine comebacker and threw wildly to first, allowing two Sartans to score.

A wild pitch and an RBI single by Priddy tied the game at 2 in the third, thanks to two walks issued by Sartans starter Nolan Esterly, and Vascon Smith’s two-out RBI single in the fifth made it 3-2.

Kai Fitak doubled and scored the game’s final run in the sixth on Braunschweiger’s second bunt single of the game.

“When one part of the game ain’t working, we have something else to go to,” Murphy said, after his Rams smacked two triples in their first-round win over Del Norte.

Rams 11, Del Norte 0: Two pitchers combined on a two-hitter Tuesday afternoon, as the Rams advanced with a first-round victory.

Rio Rancho hitters pounded 14 hits, and jumped on the Knights (1-8) early, sending eight batters to the plate in the first and scoring three runs. Castañeda supplied an RBI-double and catcher Josh Boyer, marking his season debut after missing the first 10 games with an injury, plated a run on a groundout.

The second inning was even worse for the Knights, as the Rams sent 10 batters to the plate and put a 5 n the scoreboard. Savage doubled home Braunschweiger, who started the rally with a single; Ryan Casados’s triple scored Savage and Casados plated on a single by Priddy. Kai Fitak doubled home the final run in the outburst.

The Rams only managed a runner via an error in the third, then scored their final three runs in the fourth. Izzy Tafoya doubled and scored on a double by Boyer; Boyer scored on a single by Bryan Vasquez and Alvarado later reached on an infield single to score Vasquez.

By game’s end, Murphy had used all 18 of his players on the roster.

Right-hander Nick Di Gregorio (2-0) retired the first 11 Knights he faced, with seven strikeouts in the four frames he worked. The Knights’ 12th batter of the game, Alex Garcia, doubled down the left-field line to spoil his bid for a no-hitter.

Jack Mollner worked the seventh, yielding an infield single.

The game, shorted to five innings via the 10-run mercy run, lasted only 66 minutes.

Storm struggle

Storm 6, West Mesa 0: On Tuesday, Jace Dominic scattered two hits through six frames and Jarren Villa shut down the Mustangs in the seventh.

DJ Sandoval was 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI; Chase Tyler went 3 for 3.

Sandia 6, Storm 4: Austin Barela was rocked for all six of Sandia’s runs in the fateful second inning Wednesday, when he failed to get an out and the host Matadors dropped the Storm into the consolation bracket.

Following Barela to the hill were Gavin Hoffman (second and third innings); Villa (fourth and fifth); and Logan Kinter (sixth).

Seven players each had a hit for the Storm.

“Austin did not have his pitches working and (a mix-up on a double-play) ) ball — our only error of the game — cost us a big second inning,” CHS coach Shane Shallenberger said. “Sandia capitalized on the error and had a double and a 3-run homer after the error … They scored 2 more runs on single, 2 walks, hit batter and wild pitch.

“I thought we had good energy and played a good game other than the second inning,” Shallenberger added.

St. Pius X 5, Storm 4: Cleveland was sent reeling by the 10th-seeded Sartans Friday afternoon and dropped into their Saturday battle for seventh place, when they were to face the loser of the Rio Grande-Cibola contest.

Extra innings: The annual Sal Puentes/Rio Rancho Tourney runs Thursday-Saturday at RRHS. Thursday’s games are: Carlsbad vs. Albuquerque Academy at 11 a.m.; Artesia vs. Cleveland at 1:30 p.m.; Valley vs. Goddard at 4 p.m.; and the host Rams vs. Bloomfield at 6:30 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 3 p.m.

… The Rams have won their own tournament seven times, including the last time it was played (2019), after beating La Cueva 7-1. Cleveland won it once, in 2017.