For Los Lunas baseball, a remarkable and memorable comeback

If you saw the beginning, you could never have predicted the ending.

The beginning? La Cueva, Class 5A’s No. 1 baseball seed, sending 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first and scoring six runs against No. 9 Los Lunas.

The ending? The Bears shockingly being dismissed from the tournament.

Los Lunas authored what was certainly the biggest upset of the prep baseball season. This was also possibly the biggest upset in any sport of the entire school year, as the Tigers scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to oust La Cueva 9-6 in the quarterfinals on Thursday night at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Complex.

“I think coming back from six down, I don’t think anyone on the team thought we were gonna lose,” sophomore shortstop Jonah Utash said.

Los Lunas (19-10) faces No. 5 Eldorado (22-7) at 7 p.m. Friday at the Riordan complex in the semifinals.

“This team, we’ve been together for a long time,” Tigers coach Paul Cieremans said. “We know how to take big wins in stride and get ready for the next day and go.”

For the Tigers, this may have been the program’s most significant victory since 2002, when it won in the semifinals to reach that year’s state championship game. Los Lunas’ team and coaches, plus their vocal fans, heartily celebrated.

It was Utash, with the bat in his hand with nobody out in the top of the seventh and the bases full of Tigers, who made the swing that determined the game.

His hard-hit ball was not fielded cleanly by the second baseman, the first error. Then it stunningly scooted past La Cueva’s right fielder, a second error. The bases cleared, Utash motored to third, and Los Lunas turned a 6-5 deficit into an 8-6 lead.

Moments later, the Tigers scored Utash on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze for a 9-6 lead.

La Cueva loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, but a fly ball ended the threat, and ended the Bears’ 2025 season, too.

La Cueva (25-4) scored all its runs in the first inning. Braiden Reynolds knocked in two with a triple, and Brady McConkey later scored two on a ground rule double.

“We were low (after that first inning),” Utash said.

Los Lunas importantly cut the deficit in half with three runs in the third, which was the most important inning outside of the seventh for the Tigers as they found a pulse after that dreadful start.

“That is when the momentum took off,” Utash said.

Said Cieremans: “It changed the complexion of the game. It gave us confidence, and it put them back on their heels a little bit.”

Los Lunas pulled within a run at 6-5 in the fifth, and then the Tigers finally caught and passed La Cueva in the seventh. A fielding error, a single to left by JJ Utash (Jonah’s cousin) and a walk to Josiah Byers filled the bases and set the stage for Jonah.

Los Lunas had played the Bears reasonably close in two regular-season games, both won by La Cueva (9-4 and 8-4).

The Tigers also played Eldorado recently, with the Eagles winning 7-4 on May 1. Los Lunas will have to put the emotions of Thursday night aside quickly. The celebrating went on for quite a while in the concourse area before everyone dispersed and began to think about Friday night.

“This team is resilient,” Cieremans said. “We don’t quit.”