Raider rally falls short
Cibola falls behind 5-0, loses 6-4 to Perry
AWC at Eastern Arizona, 12 p.m. AWC at Eastern Arizona, 2:30 p.m.
As the No. 13-ranked team in 6A entering Friday, the Cibola baseball team would have two more regular-season chances to get a win that would likely lock up a spot in the top 16 and mean a home play-in game next Wednesday.
Now, following a 6-4 loss to Perry, it’s down to one chance.
The Raiders (11-6 AIA) fell in an early hole that they weren’t quite able to climb out of against the No. 15 Pumas on Friday, leaving them firmly on the top-16 bubble heading into their final game of the regular season, which will be played Monday at Rincon/ University in Tucson.
“(Monday) is more important now because of this loss, I would say,” Cibola coach Larsen Jones said.
The Raiders were done in Friday by a slow offensive start coupled with a rough top of the first.
Perry senior right-hander Colton Gates allowed just four base runners over
Perry: 9-9 AIA CHS: 11-6 AIA
the first five innings — never more than one in an inning — while the Pumas’ offense built a 5-0 lead off Cibola starter Izaak Varela.
Varela allowed five runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks in four innings of work, and didn’t get much help from his defense at the beginning of the game.
Perry scored three in the first, with all three being unearned. A two-out error in right field allowed the first run to score, and then on an infield single by JK Urbanek, two runners came around to score to make it 3-0.
“With that first inning, of course you wish you could have it back when things don’t go your way in a game, you wish you could have it back,” Jones said. “But it’s what we talked about in practice yesterday. This time of year, with playoffs coming up, and this is a playoff-caliber