La Cueva puts both teams in the metro finals

Rio Rancho, Volcano Vista await Monday

La Cueva’s baseball and softball teams, along with Rio Rancho baseball and Volcano Vista softball, will play in the title games of the Albuquerque Metro Championships on Monday.

The baseball game, tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday, features the top two seeds, Rio Rancho and La Cueva. The Rams will host on Monday.

The top-seeded Bears will entertain No. 3 Volcano Vista in softball, also at 4 p.m. Monday.

Each of the four teams won semifinal games on Saturday afternoon.

BASEBALL: Rio Rancho defeated fourth-seeded Volcano Vista 6-4, while La Cueva beat thirdseeded Cleveland 12-2 in six innings.

Rio Rancho (10-1-2) trailed 1-0 in the fourth when the Rams banged out six hits, including a two-run double by reliever Casen Savage (1-0), to grab a 5-1 lead.

Savage allowed one run while going 2⅔ innings in relief of starter Seth Lee. Kai Fitak moved from third base to the mound, giving up the Hawks’ final runs on a tworun homer by Nathan Wallin.

The Hawks (7-4) threatened in the sixth, loading the bases on two walks and an infield single, but clean-up hitter Aidan Zacarias’ line drive headed down the right field line was speared by first baseman Dean Ellison for the third out.

The Rams beat La Cueva 7-0 at RRHS on Feb. 28, the only loss so far this season for the Bears (8-1).

At La Cueva on Saturday, the Bears scored four runs, including a couple that were unearned, in the first inning as they put away Cleveland (10-2) and ended the Storm’s 10-game winning streak.

Braiden Reynolds in the third homered for La Cueva as the Bears scored three times more for a 7-2 lead. La Cueva walked it off with five runs in the sixth. Highlights in that at-bat included Jackson Meng’s RBI double, later Christian Melo’s two-run double.

Jackson Kay went the distance for La Cueva, giving up two hits while striking out seven.

SOFTBALL: Addisen Byers’ three-run home run to left-center in the bottom of the fifth put La Cueva (7-1) ahead for good as the Bears beat visiting, fifth-seeded Cibola 4-2 in the semis. Volcano Vista downed No. 7 Albuquerque High 9-5 in the other semifinal.

At La Cueva, the Cougars (102) led 1-0 into the fifth. But Byers’ one-out homer put the Bears ahead, and teammate Mel Macias, up next, also hit a home run for a 4-1 lead.

Cibola had a rally going in the seventh, scoring a run and getting the bases loaded. But La Cueva freshman pitcher Lainey Alcaraz recorded a strikeout to end the game.

At Volcano Vista, Shay Saladin’s solo home run in the bottom of the sixth broke a 5-5 tie for the Hawks (7-3), and they tacked on three insurance runs as they downed the Bulldogs (9-4).

Saladin and MacKenzie Vela each drove in a pair of runs as Volcano Vista’s offense recorded 13 hits.

AHS had tied the game 5-5 on a three-run homer in the top of the sixth.