Sandia hangs on, just barely, against longshot Cibola

The first eight runs looked like they’d be plenty for the Sandia Matadors.

They were not.

Sandia, the No. 6 seed in the Class 5A state baseball tournament, put up an eight spot in the third inning, and for the first time in this postseason, Cibola was playing like the 14 seed it was. The Cougars wasted scoring chances, and their defense committed a couple of crucial errors in that aforementioned eight-run inning.

But the Cougars chipped away, and even cut the deficit to one in the sixth inning. But the Matadors plated two runs of their own in the bottom half and they escaped the upset bid by Cibola, winning 10-7 in the quarterfinals at the Jennifer Riordan Spark Kindness Complex.

Sandia (21-8) takes on No. 2 Rio Rancho at 4 p.m. Friday at the Riordan in the semifinals.

“I was telling these guys, do not let off the gas,” Sandia coach Marc Hilton said. “Anything can happen. You let a team like Cibola hang around, they can come back and beat us. They’re that good. They’ve been proving that all year.”

The first run of Sandia’s third scored because Cibola’s right fielder lost a ball in the sun, an issue both teams had with a high, cloudless sky.

A sacrifice fly made it 2-0, and an additional run scored on that play due to a throwing error. Another throwing error moments later upped the Sandia lead to 4-0.

The key hit was Charles Armijo’s two-RBI double down the right field line for a 6-0 bulge.

But ever so slowly, Cibola worked its way back into the game. Jacob Segotta swatted a two-run single to center in the top of the fourth, and the deficit was down to five runs at 8-3. In the fifth, Derrick Chee and Zach Wood delivered RBI hits, and the Cougars inched closer.

In the sixth, Isaac Brito touched up reliever Adriel Figueroa-Brito for a two-run home run with two outs, and Sandia’s lead was down to a single, tentative run.

Hilton said he thought about walking Brito.

“I knew coming in, I was very concerned. I knew how dangerous Cibola was. They’re definitely a team that can contend with anybody in the state,” he said.

The home run ball was not all on Figueroa-Brito; Brito launched it high, and it got into the jet stream, blowing exactly that way, and he cleared the wall in right-center.

“We know that team is tough. For them (to rally), we’re not too shocked,” Figueroa-Brito said. “Never a doubt that we were gonna win this game. They’re a tough team, but we’re a tough team, too.”

Sandia pitchers Levi Brooks and Figueroa-Brito combined to strike out 14 batters.