Bulldogs rally to lead in 4-6A baseball race

Fierce winds cause multiple postponements on West Side

There’s no telling which way the District 4-6A baseball race is going to go over the last 10 days of the regular season.

Albuquerque High on Tuesday became the third team to occupy first place in that league in the past two weeks. The visiting Bulldogs, trailing Valley by five runs entering the sixth inning, stormed back with nine runs in their last two at-bats to beat the Vikings 10-6 on a wind-blown afternoon in the North Valley.

Santiago Vallejos drove in the go-ahead run during a seven-run sixth inning for AHS. Javier Pavia gave the Bulldogs 3⅔ innings of scoreless relief to earn the pitching victory.

AHS (9-11 overall) improved to 5-2 in league play with its second dramatic come-frombehind league victory in the past week. The Bulldogs are tied with Rio Grande (12-7, 5-2) for first place in 4-6A, but the Bulldogs have the tiebreaker by having swept both league games from the Ravens.

Valley (10-7, 4-2) slipped to third place. The Vikings have a crucial road game looming Friday night at Rio Grande. Tuesday night, the Ravens scored seven in the fifth inning and thumped visiting Highland 12-2.

At St. Pius, Sartans left-handed pitcher Hayden Walker tossed a five-inning no-hitter as St. Pius routed Valencia 12-0 in five innings on Tuesday in District 5-5A.

Walker struck out 14 Jaguar batters in the victory. Teammate Josh Lackner homered, tripled and drove in four runs to pace the St. Pius offense.

At Cibola, Cleveland doubled up the Cougars 10-5 in a District 1-6A matchup. In his first game of the season, Treston Shallenberger had a pair of hits and two RBIs for the Storm (12-8, 3-3). Jaren Jackson homered for Cleveland, which broke the game open with five runs in the top of the seventh.

SOFTBALL: Anahi Ruiz doubled, tripled and hit an inside-the-park home run for visiting Albuquerque High, as the Bulldogs (13-7, 6-1) blanked Valley 11-0 in District 4-6A action.

TUESDAY POSTPONEMENTS: The heavy winds were especially savage on the West Side on Tuesday, turning that side of town into a dust bowl and leading to several postponements.

The Volcano Vista at Rio Rancho baseball game was rescheduled for 6 p.m. today. The Cibola at Cleveland softball matchup was pushed back to 4 p.m. Thursday. Los Lunas at Belen baseball was delayed to today at 6 p.m.

Rio Rancho’s softball game at Volcano Vista on Tuesday was also called off, but no makeup date was immediately announced.

A game called off because of weather last week, Valley baseball at Atrisco Heritage, also is Thursday at 4 p.m.

Wind also caused the postponement Tuesday of the Albuquerque Metro Tennis Championships.