Ad
Featured
RRHS baseball team moves into semifinals
His day is done: Rams catcher Jordan Sena was tossed by the plate umpire for something he said after striking out for the third time Thursday. He was aptly replaced behind the plate for the seventh inning by junior Jackson Roybal.
Published
Modified
ALBUQUERQUE — Carlsbad senior righthander Hazen Wright came close to sending his Cavemen into a Friday semifinal baseball game, only to hit two Rio Rancho players in the bottom of the sixth, which cost him the ballgame.
The No. 2 Rams (25-4) edged the Cavemen (20-8) 6-5 to move into a Friday evening 5A semifinal at Santa Ana Star Field, where at 6:30 p.m. they will meet the winner of Thursday evening’s Cleveland-Los Lunas quarterfinal.
Wright had fanned nine Rams and his team had a 5-4 lead until he lost control with one out in the bottom of the sixth.
With one down, Dylan Archuleta singled to right and Sean Vigil, whose misplay of a single to center in the top of the inning had allowed the tie-breaking run to score, singled to left.
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 sending Vigil to third. After Martinez stole second, Wright plunked Wyatt Tinker to load the bases, sending leadoff batter Casen 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 in the foot to send Martinez home for a 6-5 lead.
Savage, in his usual spot in center field to start the game, wound up with the game-winning RBI at the plate and the winning pitcher on the mound.
In the seventh, with Jackson Roybal replacing Sena — ejected after the called third strike for something he said — 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.
“Carlsbad’s very good. Their run game’s very good,” RRHS coach David Gomez said, referring to two Cavemen stealing second base off southpaw Gallegos in the fifth inning. “We just had to weather that storm. They did what they needed to do to get the lead in that moment.”
Ad
Gomez was pleased that his team beat Wright, for whom he has a lot of respect.
“He’s an impressive guy and a great player, for sure,” he said. “We’ll take it.”
