Prep sports: Puentes, Griego finalists determined
Mar. 26—RIO RANCHO — At the Sal Puentes Invitational, the championship game involves the teams with the shortest commute.
Up the road, at the Kristin Griego Tournament, the final features the two schools that traveled the farthest to get here.
The Griego softball final between Hobbs and Carlsbad will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Eagle Ridge Middle School.
At Rio Rancho High, the host Rams will take on rival Cleveland in the Puentes baseball final at 3 p.m.
Baseball
Cleveland (9-6) became the first New Mexico team to beat second-ranked Carlsbad (12-3) this season, as the Storm handily beat the Cavemen 9-3 in the early semifinal.
On Friday night, Class 5A's No. 1-ranked Rio Rancho had no trouble in a 7-0 semifinal victory over Valley.
Cleveland put up five runs in the first inning against Cavemen starter Tristin Thomas.
That included a two-out, two-strike grand slam to left by junior Gavin Hoffman for a quick 5-0 lead.
"Down in the at-bat, he fooled me with a curveball, kept my hands back and hit it over the wall," Hoffman said matter-of-factly. "Bases loaded. two outs, I'm just trying to get a hit."
That early crooked number was of great comfort to Cleveland senior left-hander Jace Dominic (4-1), who struck out eight over six innings.
"It's great when your team puts up runs for you," Dominic said. "You can go out there and pitch to contact and let your defense work."
Cleveland had 13 hits in the victory. Carlsbad had four.
"Today I felt like we finally played all three facets. That's the best we've played offensively, defensively, and pitching," Storm coach Shane Shallenberger said.
Sophomore Brandon Hennessy added a two-run double later in the game for a 9-1 lead in the sixth for Cleveland.
In the night game, Rio Rancho (15-1) had only two more hits (eight) than Valley errors (six) in a rather uneventful victory in which all the runs were scored in the first three innings.
The Vikings (8-7) made four errors in the first inning alone, leading to three unearned Rio Rancho runs.
Vascon Smith had an RBI double in the first, and Ryan Casados drove in two runs in the second for the Rams on a single through a drawn-in infield.
Noah Braunschweiger added an RBI single in the third for Rio Rancho.
RIO RANCHO 7, VALLEY 0
Valley 000 000 0 — 0 2 6
Rio Rancho 322 000 x — 7 8 2
Batteries: V, Marquez Gavaldon, Dylan Lesku (2), Daniel Gutierrez (3), Jayden Martinez (5), Walker Schultz (6) and Daniel Candelaria. RR, Jason Parker, Jason Gordon (7) and Dominick Priddy. Win: Parker (5-0). Loss: Gavaldon. Leading hitters: RR, Ryan Casados 2-3, 3RBIs. Records: RR 15-1; V 8-7.
Softball
Between them, Hobbs (10-2) and Carlsbad (12-0) took care of several of the metro area's premier teams on their way to the tournament's championship game.
The Eagles and Cavegirls battled their way through challenges from the host team, Rio Rancho, plus Volcano Vista and La Cueva, en route to Saturday's final.
No. 1-ranked Carlsbad beat La Cueva 9-1 in the quarterfinals on Friday morning, then got out to an early lead on Volcano Vista — the top seed at last week's metro tournament — and defeated the Hawks 7-5 in the afternoon semifinal game, cut to six innings because of a time limit. Volcano Vista is ranked No. 6 in Class 5A, but the Hawks are the top-ranked 5A team from the metro area.
"When you're playing a team like that, you have to play a perfect game and we didn't," Volcano Vista coach Desi Garcia said. "We made a couple of mistakes that cost us."
Hobbs roughed up metro champ Rio Rancho 12-4 in the semifinals to advance.
Volcano Vista and Rio Rancho, which met last week in the metro semifinals, play for third place Saturday morning.
