Matadors rally past Sartans with three-run sixth
St. Pius suffers its sixth one-run defeat of the season
For the Sandia Matadors, this was, shall we say, fortuitous timing.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and with runners at second and third, Sandia was facing a one-run deficit and the Matadors’ Tyler Wilson was down to his last strike.
Which, as it turns out, was the worst possible news for St. Pius.
The Matadors’ best twostrike hitter delivered his most clutch swing of the season, a two-run double down the right-field line. That propelled Sandia to an exciting 7-6 victory over the visiting Sartans on Tuesday.
“We work a lot with two strikes, two-strike hitting drills,” said Wilson, a senior designated hitter. “I feel really comfortable in two-strike counts.”
He got a curveball from St. Pius reliever Hayden Walker — the Sartans’ No. 1 starter who was summoned in relief Tuesday — and popped it to right field. It wasn’t hit especially hard or deep, but it sliced away from St. Pius’ right fielder and plated Chris Hamilton and Derrick Chavez for a 7-6 lead.
Just before that, Walker had wild-pitched home a run to make it 6-5 St. Pius.
“It’s a battling mindset,” Sandia coach Chris Eaton said of Wilson. “It’s not striking out, and putting it in play and making the defense make a play. And he’s the best player on our team at doing that.”
Zack Mathes (2-0) picked up the win in relief for Sandia. He entered in the fifth, with the Matadors leading 3-2, but gave up four runs, including a two-out threerun double to right by Jacob McCoy that put St. Pius in front 5-3. Austin Jaramillo drove McCoy home with a single for a 6-3 edge.
Sandia picked up a run in the bottom half of the fifth against St. Pius’ Mason Ashcraft, on in relief of starter Ryan McGaha.
In the bottom of the sixth, Dante Caviggia led off with a walk and moved to second on a one-out infield single by Hamilton. Tyler Scheler walked to load the bases. Walker (1-2) got a strikeout for the second out before facing Wilson.
As for Mathes, after a rocky fifth, he steadied himself in the final two innings.
“That’s one of the best teams in the state, regardless of class,” Eaton said.
“It can’t be understated,” added Wilson. “St. Pius has very, very good pitching, and we had to play good baseball to hang with them. Everyone chipped in.”
St. Pius (6-7) has already lost six, one-run games this season. Several of them have occurred like this one, with it ahead late, and most of them have occurred against strong teams: Piedra Vista, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Centennial and now Sandia.
“We talked at the beginning of the season, do we want to battle-test ourselves? Or end up with a pretty good record?” St. Pius coach Matt McCoy said. “Obviously, we’d like to do both. But against a schedule like that. …”
The Sartans’ road doesn’t get easier, with La Cueva on Thursday and Class 4A’s top-ranked Hope Christian on Saturday.
ALSO TUESDAY: La Cueva walked off Volcano Vista 2-1 on Tuesday on Ben Schoneman’s RBI single with one out in the seventh. … Manzano’s Mitchell Parker struck out 15 and surrendered just one hit in the Monarchs’ 2-0 win at Albuquerque High.