Sandia crests: Matadors win first state baseball title in 45 years

Sandia baseball purged four-and-a-half decades of pent-up frustration.

There had been some chances to end this long title drought over the years for the Matadors. There have been close calls. Title game losses that stung, that lingered.

All of that disappeared on Saturday night.

The Matadors’ first state baseball championship since 1980 was authoritatively achieved at Santa Ana Star Field, with three separate four-run innings, and a strong performance from starting pitcher Damon McRee, carrying No. 6 Sandia to a 13-4 victory over No. 5 Eldorado.

“Dream come true,” an emotional Sandia coach Marc Hilton said. “Every high school baseball coach, I believe, dreams about going back to their alma mater and bringing back a state championship.”

Senior right-hander McRee pitched a complete game. The Matadors scored four runs in the top of the first, four more in the fourth and four more to put it away in the sixth.

Up and down the lineup, the Matadors had contributions. But the top four — Anthony Condon, Jeremiah Bustillos, Adriel Figueroa-Brito and Colton Floyd — combined for a dozen runs and nine RBIs.

Sophomore first baseman Floyd drove in four runs, including a two-run home run to left in the fourth. Senior shortstop Figueroa-Brito and senior third baseman Bustillos drove in two runs apiece, and the Matadors (23-8) were in control from start to finish against a team that had beaten them three times in the regular season.

“Tonight was when it really mattered,” said McRee, who got better as the game wore on, including retiring the order in the fifth and sixth when Hilton admitted he was thinking about turning to Figueroa-Brito who closed Sandia’s two previous games. But he didn’t need to as McRee was extremely effective. “We were just trying to play with our hearts out, our last game.”

Sandia had been to three state finals since 1980, but could not get over the hump.

The Matadors were ranked second in the state (by the coaches) to La Cueva for a large chunk of this season, but Sandia hit a bad stretch late in the year. They lost two close games to Eldorado in a postponed doubleheader, then got roughed up by La Cueva in a season-ending twinbill.

And Piedra Vista won the first game of their first-round series.

But Sandia got its mojo back last Saturday, beating the Panthers twice and sending the Matadors into Week 2 refreshed and ready.

They held off 14 seed Cibola on Thursday, and came back to beat Rio Rancho in Friday’s semifinals.

On Saturday night, with a huge crowd in attendance, the Matadors dominated the Eagles (23-9) in most every way. And when No. 1 La Cueva was dismissed in an upset Thursday to Los Lunas, Hilton said, “it’s anybody’s championship. It might as well be ours.”

Floyd drove in two runs in the first with a two-run single. The Eagles did answer with a run in the bottom half, but Sandia pulled away. There was a run in the third, then four more runs in the fourth with Condon and Bustillos scoring runs on singles, and then Floyd bashing a home run for a 9-1 lead.

The 6-foot-5 Floyd was walked intentionally five times just this week. That home run was exactly why opposing teams were so keen to stay away from him. And when they did challenge him, Floyd wanted to punish them.

“That’s the mentality for sure,” he said. “I’m just trying to stay locked in, and stay within my approach, and when they do pitch to me, I’m gonna make them pay.”

The seniors in this program, like Bustillos, McRee, Condon and Figueroa-Brito, were freshmen when Sandia played in the title game in 2022 and lost to Carlsbad.

This fourth meeting with Eldorado, Hilton said, called for adjustments, in particular mixing up their approach in how they pitched to the Eagles. And McRee was a new arm for the Eagles to see.

“I just tried to get ahead, stay ahead in the count early, throw strikes and let my defense do all the work,” McRee said.

McRee also helped his own cause during a four-run sixth. Bustillos drove in a run with a single, Figueroa-Brito scored a run on a triple, and following an intentional walk to Floyd, McRee scored two more on a double to left-center.

“We just had faith in one another,” Figueroa-Brito said. “I think that’s what really started (our late season push).”

Eldorado was in the championship game for the first time since 2015.

Sandia beats Eldorado to win 5A baseball title: Photos