It's an all-District 2 clash for 5A baseball title

District 1-5A might have been New Mexico’s best prep baseball district in the regular season, but it’s District 2 that will own 2025’s final and most important night.

No. 5 Eldorado and No. 6 Sandia won semifinal games Friday at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Complex on the West Side, and the longtime rivals, separated by just a couple of miles in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights, will determine Class 5A’s champion Saturday.

The Eagles (23-7) and Matadors (21-8) play at 6 p.m. at Santa Ana Star Field. Eldorado went 3-0 against Sandia in the regular season. The Eagles won in the semifinals of the St. Pius tournament, then swept a late-season doubleheader, 8-7 and 10-8.

No. 6 SANDIA 9, No. 2 RIO RANCHO 5: The Matadors spotted the Rams (23-6) three early runs, but Sandia’s two-out hitting was on point and clutch in later innings as it advanced to the state final for the first time since 2022. The school has not won state in baseball since 1980.

Senior catcher Damon McRee drove in four runs for Sandia, including a two-out, bases-clearing triple to center that capped a five-run fifth for the Matadors who broke a 4-4 tie.

“I was just trying to keep it simple, try to put something in the outfield, try to score some runs,” McRee said. “Make them make a play.”

Sandia’s final six runs came when two were out.

“I’m very proud of the guys,” Matadors coach Marc Hilton said. “They had great approaches at the plate today, and they did the job, and kept grinding. They know how to fight in tough ballgames like this. We stayed the course.”

The Rams started quickly, with three in the first, including a two-run single to right by Matt Cook. There was also a bases loaded walk moments later.

“They punched us,” McRee said, “we came back and punched them harder.”

In the first half of the game, they were more like effective jabs.

Sandia got back even quickly. A run in the second, and then a two-run single to center in the top of the third by Aiden Mobley made it 3-all.

The teams traded two-out hits that scored runs in the fourth.

In Sandia’s top of the fifth, the key at-bat was the one authored by big sophomore Colton Floyd.

Sandia teammate Jeremiah Bustillos had drilled a line drive single to center for a 5-4 lead two batters earlier. And Adriel Figueroa-Brito was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Floyd, who already had drawn three intentional walks Thursday and Friday before this at-bat, stepped in.

With a 3-2 count, he took a fastball just off the inside corner and scored a run for a 6-4 Sandia lead. Rio Rancho catcher Alex Gallegos immediately stood up and placed both his hands on his head looking to his dugout, clearly believing it was strike three rather than ball four.

“We thought he threw a good pitch there, we didn’t get it,” Rio Rancho coach David Gomez said. “That happens. … Credit to Sandia’s lineup. They’re loaded from top to bottom, a lineup that can hurt you anywhere.”

Moments later, the next batter, McRee, bashed a triple to the wall in center, clearing the bases for a commanding 9-4 lead.

No. 5 ELDORADO 12, No. 9 LOS LUNAS 7: In the late semifinal, there were crooked numbers aplenty from both teams, but the Eagles’ five-run third inning staked them to a 9-5 lead, a lead they did not relinquish — not that the Tigers (19-11) didn’t try to keep it close — as they advanced to the program’s first state final in 10 years.

That was also the last time Eldorado won state.

There was much punching/counterpunching in this matchup. Los Lunas had a single run to open the game, the Eagles countered with four in the bottom half including Brody Hoffman’s two-RBI single.

Los Lunas, which was attempting to reach its first big-school state final in 23 years, scored two in the second (on Matty Castillo’s ground-rule double) and two more in the third for a 5-4 lead.

In Eldorado’s half of the third, Jace Sanchez-Reynolds delivered a two-run single to center for a 7-5 lead. A sacrifice fly and error bumped the lead to four.

The Tigers countered with two in the top of the fourth, but they got no closer than two runs (9-7). Hoffman added an RBI triple to center in the bottom of the fourth for a 10-7 lead, and in the fifth, Kavan Salas ripped a double down the left-field line, and plated the game’s final two runs.