1A-4A baseball roundup: St. Pius beats Grants — again; East Mountain advances to semis

There will be a new state champion in Class 4A baseball this year.

No. 2 St. Pius beat Grants — last year’s winner — in a quarterfinal matchup at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Complex on Thursday night. That sets up a date with No. 6 Bloomfield, which upset No. 3 Albuquerque Academy in another quarterfinal. The Sartans will face the Bobcats at the same venue at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, top-seeded Artesia will square off against No. 12 Goddard at 12:30 p.m.

No. 2 ST. PIUS 3, No. 7 GRANTS 2: The Sartans — and freshman pitcher Hunter Jiron, specifically — seem to have the Pirates’ number.

Jiron pitched seven strong innings, allowing five hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out seven to lead St. Pius (18-11) past the defending state champs for the third time this season.

“It feels really good to pitch against them,” Jiron said. “It’s just my goal to pitch against the best teams.”

Jiron was also on the mound for both regular season meetings against Grants (18-10), which St. Pius won 3-1 and 2-1. According to Sartans coach Jim Stebbins, there was really no other option than the talented young hurler.

“He refused to let us give the ball to somebody else,” Stebbins said. “And I think the coaches bought into that. The players bought into that. The team bought into that.

“I think he just went out and proved it again today that he’s one of the best pitchers in 4A, even though he’s a freshman. We knew it was going to be another tough, close ball game.”

After an RBI double gave Grants a 1-0 lead, St. Pius jumped on the Pirates for three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Both Joaquin Aragon and Michael Deller drove in runs for the Sartans in the frame, and Kaiden Swanson accounted for the third run with an opportunistic steal of home.

St. Pius cruised until the final inning, when Grants put runners on second and third with nobody out. The Pirates got to within 3-2 on a sacrifice fly, but Giron ultimately kept his cool to retire the side.

“I try to be as calm as I can be because the kids feed off of that. Never too high, never too low,” Stebbins said. “We just try to instill that in the boys, too.”

No. 6 BLOOMFIELD 4, No. 3 ABQ ACADEMY 2: When the Bobcats need to win a big game, Blake Spencer is the ideal man to have on the mound.

The senior pitcher limited the Chargers (18-10) to four hits over seven innings to propel Bloomfield (23-6) to its second tense victory over Academy this season. The first one was a 7-6 extra-inning triumph over the Chargers early in the season, so this one was a little more meaningful given the circumstances.

“Blake threw a hell of a game and like I tell everybody, he was a quarterback for the state championship twice and he’s used to the big show,” said Bloomfield coach Anthony Valencia. “He lives for stuff like this.”

Spencer got stronger as the game progressed, as he shut the Chargers out over the final four innings. Academy got two of its four hits in the final frame, but Spencer got Matthew Delaney to ground out to second to end the Chargers’ final threat. The Bloomfield hurler had several pitches working well for him on this day.

“I just needed to command the outside corner … My slider was working really good. I mean, they couldn’t hit my slider,” Spencer said. “Another thing is I threw them the high inside fastball and then came right back with the down low slider. They couldn’t hit it. My changeup was working really good.”

The game was tied 2-2 after three innings before freshman outfielder Cable Carruth drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the top of the fifth. An RBI triple from Troy Jaramillo added some insurance for the Bobcats in the sixth.

No. 1 ARTESIA 7, No. 9 HOPE CHRISTIAN 5: The Bulldogs (23-6) led almost the entire way, but the Huskies (18-11) made Artesia sweat it out before it advanced to Friday’s semifinals.

Artesia scored three runs in the bottom of the first to lead 3-1, and the lead swelled to as much as 7-2 before a late rally by Hope Christian fell just short.

In the Artesia first, shortstop Jett Fuentes and pitcher Daelan Pacheco each had RBI doubles in the first. The Huskies cut the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the second. The Bulldogs added a single run for a 4-2 lead and tacked on two more in the fifth for a 6-2 advantage as Pacheco drove in another run.

Nolan Garcia of Hope’s two-RBI single in the seventh made it 7-4, and the Huskies later loaded the bases before Artesia’s second reliever in the seventh, Jack Byers, recorded a strikeout (on three pitches) to end the game.

No. 12 GODDARD 12, No. 13 CHAPARRAL 2 (6 inn.): The Rockets (14-14) broke the game open with the Lobos (17-13) by scoring seven runs in the second inning, and the Rockets advanced to the semifinals.

The Rockets sent 12 batters to the plate in the fateful second, and scored those seven runs on just five hits.

Class 3A

No. 2 EAST MOUNTAIN 8, No. 7 SANTA FE INDIAN 3: The Timberwolves (20-7) scored two runs apiece in four separate innings as they eliminated the Braves (14-11) and earned a berth in Friday’s semifinals opposite No. 3 Robertson.

Rylen Radosevich’s RBI triple highlighted a two-run first inning for East Mountain. Ty Rector tripled and scored in a two-run second inning.

Yet another triple, this one from Charlie Birdwell, scored a run as East Mountain added two more in the fourth for a 6-3 lead. The Timberwolves added two insurance runs in the fifth, one run scoring on a balk.

Birdwell and Zane Davis each scored three runs for East Mountain.

Robertson beat No. 6 Tularosa 11-6 on Thursday in the quarterfinals, and the Cardinals will face East Mountain at 9:30 a.m. Friday.

No. 1 N.M. MILITARY INSTITUTE 9, No. 9 SANDIA PREP 0: Senior left-hander Nicolas Barcenas twirled a complete-game three-hitter, striking out nine as the Colts (20-6) blanked the Sundevils (15-12).

NMMI will face No, 5 West Las Vegas at 3:30 p.m. in the other semifinal. Cody Montoya of the Dons fired a two-hitter as West Las Vegas beat rival No. 4 St. Michael’s 6-0.

Class 2A

No. 2 SANTA ROSA 10, No. 7 OAK GROVE 0, 5 INN: Josiah Barela didn’t allow a hit over five innings and Andrew Urban had three RBIs as the Lions (20-3) cruised past the Owls (10-11).

Oak Grove, which won last year’s 2A crown, didn’t help themselves with multiple errors over the course of the game. The last of those came in the decisive fifth inning, when David Chavez came up with two on and came all the way home following a multi-base error in left field to enact the mercy rule.

Six different players had hits for Santa Rosa, led by Urban and Joshua Cordova with two apiece.

No. 1 Eunice, No. 5 Loving and No. 3 Hozho Academy also won quarterfinal games Thursday. Eunice blanked No. 8 Raton 12-0, Loving was a 6-4 winner over No. 4 Mesilla Valley, and Hozho doubled up No 6 Rehoboth Christian 10-5.

The semifinals Friday are Eunice-Loving at 12:30 p.m., followed by Hozho Academy versus Santa Rosa at 3:30 p.m.

Class 1A

The 1A state final, at 1 p.m. Friday, features No. 1 Magdalena, which edged fifth-seeded Grady 6-5, and No. 2 Gateway Christian, which routed No. 3 Logan 12-2, in Thursday’s semifinals.