4 higher seeds, 4 lower seeds
Opening day of metro tournament sees seeds 5-8 all go down in 1st round
Only half of the top eight seeds advanced to today’s quarterfinals of the Albuquerque Metro Baseball Championships.
No. 1 La Cueva, No. 2 Rio Rancho, No. 3 Cleveland and No. 4 Volcano Vista all cruised to firstround victories Monday, but seeds 5-8 — Valley, Atrisco Heritage, Rio Grande and Eldorado — were sent into the consolation bracket. No. 12 ALBUQUERQUE HIGH 6, No. 5 VALLEY 4: Robbie Herrera struck out eight in a complete game, and doubled and drove in
a pair of runs for the Bulldogs, who visit Volcano Vista in today’s quarterfinals at 4 p.m. No. 4 VOLCANO VISTA 11, No. 13 MANZANO 1 (5): The Hawks beat Mitchell Parker, the Monarchs’ junior lefthanded pitcher, who left in the fifth inning.
Jacob Jacome drove in four runs for the Hawks (4-4). No. 11 CIBOLA 4, No. 6 ATRISCO HERITAGE 1: The Cougars (4-4) handed the Jaguars (6-1) their first loss. University of New Mexico signee Jack White tossed a complete-game one-hitter and struck out nine Jaguar batters in the win for the Cougars.
White also doubled, tripled and drove in a pair of runs. Nick Monk added a double and triple for Cibola, which visits district
rival Cleveland at 4 p.m. today in the quarterfinals. No. 3 CLEVELAND 10, No. 14
WEST MESA 1: Treston Shallenberger, Giacomo Musante and Robert Healy each drove in a pair of runs for Cleveland (9-1), which led 8-0 after two innings.
Cleveland rebounded from its first loss of the season, Saturday to Trevor Rogers and Carlsbad in the championship game of the Cavemen’s tournament. No. 1 LA CUEVA 12, No. 16 HIGHLAND 0 (5): The Bears (5-1) got a five-inning no-hitter from Brandon Atkins, and Jonathan Stroman drove in four runs with a home run, double and bases-loaded walk. Today La Cueva faces No. 9 Sandia. No. 9 SANDIA 12, No. 8 ELDORADO
1 (6): Tyler Scheler gave up just two hits over six innings for the Matadors (4-3), and Ricky Apodaca, the third batter of the game, hit a three-run homer to right-center for Sandia. No. 2 RIO RANCHO 14, No. 15 DEL NORTE 0 (5): Up from the JV, sophomore pitcher Justin Baron allowed just one hit, and Garrett Gouldsmith homered and doubled to lead the offense for the Rams (9-2), who get St. Pius today. No. 10 ST. PIUS 10, No. 7 RIO GRANDE 6: The Sartans downed the struggling Ravens, blowing it open with six runs in the fourth. Mitch Buffett tossed four solid innings to earn the win.
The semifinals are at the higher seed on Thursday afternoon.