Cimarron beats Spring Valley, earns two chances to reach Sunset final

An 8-4 win over Spring Valley has Cimarron-Memorial's baseball team right where it wants to be. Spartans coach Mike Hubel just wishes his team didn't waste so much time getting there.

Cimarron fell behind 3-1 early on Wednesday before using a five-run fourth inning to take control on the way to the win in the Sunset Region tournament at Centennial.

"The last eight or 10 games, it seems like we score all our runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings," Hubel said. "They need to buckle down early in the game. But they did a good job coming back."

Spring Valley will play Centennial at 1 p.m. today at Centennial in an elimination game. The winner will play Cimarron at 4.

Should the Spartans lose that game, the Spring Valley-Centennial winner would have to beat them again Friday to reach the Sunset title game.

"It's huge to win the first two," Hubel said. "We haven't done that in a long time. And now we have the upper hand."

Trailing 3-1, senior Taylor Doyle sparked the five-run rally with an RBI triple.

"His triple got us going," Hubel said. "That was a big hit."

Kaz Smith followed with an RBI single to tie the game, and sophomore Nate Hale came through with a two-out, bases-loaded double to give Cimarron the lead.

A.J. Hernandez added a two-run double in the fifth for the Spartans.

Cimarron played errorless baseball and turned a pair of double plays to help starter Kody Gorden get out of jams.

Hernandez was 2-for-3 for Cimarron, which had just five hits but took advantage of six walks and a hit batsman.

Billy Bob Ward was 2-for-3 with a double, a homer and two RBIs to lead Spring Valley.

• Centennial 7, Durango 3 -- At Centennial, Loral Monson was 2-for-2 with a triple, three runs and an RBI to help the Bulldogs eliminate the Trailblazers.

Christian Bernal (run, RBI) and Sam Friend each added two hits and Matt Triana hit a solo homer for Centennial, which took the lead early on Dominick Monteiro's two-run single in the second inning.

Friend got the win, allowing three runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out 12.

Danny Reynolds and Josh Hull each had two hits for Durango.

• Bishop Gorman 16, Palo Verde 1 -- At Sierra Vista, the Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but things went downhill from there as the Gaels earned the five-inning win to improve to 2-0 in the tournament.

Palo Verde (21-11) plays Legacy in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today at Sierra Vista. Gorman (35-3) awaits the winner at 4.

The Gaels answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI single by R.J. Santigate, who was 2-for-2 with three RBIs, and a wild pitch to make it 2-1.

Gorman took control by sending 15 batters to the plate and scoring 11 runs in the third.

• Legacy 5, Sierra Vista 4 -- At Sierra Vista, Joey Lauria's sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Austin Christiansen for the go-ahead run as the Longhorns (20-8) eliminated the Mountain Lions (25-7).

Legacy scored the tying run in the sixth when Andres Ortiz's fielder's choice plated Richard Esquivel.

Esquivel was 3-for-4, Donald Glover went 3-for-3 and Ortiz homered for Legacy.

Sierra Vista's David DeCarlo and Kyle Gamble each had two hits.

SUNRISE REGION

• Green Valley 3, Rancho 1 -- At Green Valley, senior Daniel Levine limited the Rams to four hits and junior Bobby Shiroky hit a two-run homer to lead the Gators to victory in the Sunrise Region baseball tournament.

It was the first loss in the tournament for Northeast League No. 2 seed Rancho (27-7), which will play Coronado at 1 p.m. today in an elimination game. The Gators (23-10), the top seed from the Southeast League, await the winner at 4.

Levine recorded 14 ground-ball outs, including two in the top of the second inning that helped him escape a jam.

Rams senior Justin Neubauer nearly matched Levine pitch for pitch, striking out eight and limiting the Gators to five hits.

Neubauer got out of trouble in the second inning, but Green Valley put together a two-out rally in the third. Sophomore Brett Harrison doubled and Shiroky followed by sending a 1-1 pitch to deep left for his fifth home run of the season and a 2-0 lead.

The Rams broke up Levine's shutout bid in the top of the sixth as sophomore Brandon Pletsch singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

• Coronado 3, Eldorado 2 -- At Green Valley, senior Justen Souza-Grenier singled in the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Cougars (13-15) eliminated the Sundevils (15-14).

Sophomore Taylor Giordano allowed five hits and no earned runs while striking out 12 for the Cougars. He also went 2-for-3, including a double in the sixth that tied the game 2-2.

Coronado committed two of its four errors in the first inning, leading to both Eldorado runs.

Coronado's Cody Giordano was 2-for-3, including a run-scoring triple in the third inning.

• Foothill 7, Silverado 6 -- At Las Vegas, the Falcons (18-14) scored four runs in the fifth inning and held on to beat the Skyhawks (18-15).

Drew Robinson belted a two-run homer in the top of the fourth inning to give Silverado a 3-1 lead. But Jordan Stewart answered with a two-run homer in the bottom half to tie the game at 3.

Silverado scored three runs in the seventh but was unable to complete the comeback.

Pierce Belaustegui was 3-for-4 with two RBIs to lead Silverado.

Silverado plays Las Vegas in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today. Foothill will play the winner at 4.

• Las Vegas 6, Valley 5 -- At Las Vegas, Brig Jensen singled home Dillon Dove with one out in the bottom of the eighth to lift the Wildcats (24-10) over the Vikings.

Valley (13-15) had tied the game in the top of the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Dayan Oses.

Bryce Harper went 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs to lead the Wildcats.

Valley's Eric Herring went 3-for-4.