Storm can’t find the plate, loses crusher
Back-to-back basesloaded walks in 7th send Rio Rancho to a 5-4 win
RIO RANCHO — This was a leisurely, and literal, walk-off for the Rio Rancho Rams.
Cleveland walked home the tying and game-winning runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday night as No. 3-ranked Rio Rancho rallied to beat the second-ranked Storm 5-4 in a District 1-6A baseball showdown.
“We put a high priority on this game,” said Rams coach Ron Murphy after his 399th career win with the school. “We felt it was a must win if we wanted to have a shot at the district (title).”
First Tariq Levesque, and then freshman Noah Brewer, drew one-out, bases-loaded walks from reliever Josh Chapman. Ivan Zamora and Gunner Gouldsmith scored the two final, and somewhat anticlimactic, runs in what was otherwise a fantastic matchup before an overflow crowd at Rio Rancho.
Levesque’s walk was the key moment as the Rams faced a 4-3 deficit.
After Garrett Gouldsmith struck out, Levesque got down quickly in the count, 0-2.
But then Chapman lost the plate with four consecutive pitches, Levesque walked and the game was tied.
“I was thinking that he’d throw me a pitch to get a fly ball,” Levesque said. “And I thought he’d try to keep the ball away from me.”
Brewer’s five-pitch walk ended the game moments later and the younger Gouldsmith, also a freshman, came home and slammed his helmet into the artificial turf as he scored the gamewinner with his teammates mobbing him at the plate. Levesque and Brewer each had two RBIs in the victory.
Bigger picture, this win further mixed up the already tight 1-6A standings.
Rio Rancho (17-6 overall) is 3-2 in district, same as Cleveland (175 overall).
Volcano Vista (11-8, 3-1) is idle from district play this weekend, although the Hawks face Trevor Rogers and Carlsbad this afternoon. The Hawks play Rio Rancho on Tuesday.
Piedra Vista (16-6, 2-2) can make it a three-way tie for second in 1-6A if the Panthers win at Cibola today.
“You know what?” Murphy said. “Any one of (the top four) could still be first or fourth.”
Cleveland started the week leading everyone in 1-6A, at 3-0. But the Storm is reeling a bit after losses this week to Volcano Vista and now the Rams.
“It’s a war with Rio Rancho every time we get them,” Cleveland coach Shane Shallenberger said.
Rio Rancho scored three runs in the third. Garrett Gouldsmith, Levesque and Brewer had RBIs.
Cleveland cut the deficit to 3-1 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly, then scored three in the sixth to take the lead.
Jason Herrera’s RBI triple scored a run, Giacomo Musante scored Herrera with a sac fly, and Jack Murano smoked a double to right-center to plate Robert Healy with two outs.