Jun. 25—(Click here for the Class 5A bracket.)
Gerard Pineda was back. And La Cueva is back in the state baseball championship game.
The Bears’ head coach returned to the dugout for the team’s biggest game of the year, and La Cueva scored the game’s final five runs Thursday evening as Class 5A’s fourth-seeded team advanced to the title game with a hard-fought, 6-4 victory over No. 8 Oñate.
La Cueva (17-3) faces No. 2 Hobbs (20-2) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the 5A final at Santa Ana Star Field.
“It’s amazing,” said La Cueva shortstop Akili Carris. “We went from March, thinking we weren’t gonna have a season, to now we’re having one, and we’re in the championship game. It’s incredible.”
Pineda, who missed Tuesday’s quarterfinal win over Cleveland, returned from Arizona, where his wife Bridget had kidney transplant surgery on Sunday, to coach the Bears. His wife Bridget was doing well, Pineda said after Thursday’s victory.
“It’s inspirational knowing he’s coming back and Bridget is cheering for us,” said La Cueva junior starting pitcher Tyler Manyo (6-1), who pitched a complete-game four-hitter.
La Cueva spotted Oñate leads of 1-0 and 4-2 on Thursday in a game that began 45 minutes late as officials decided to wait out a potentially threatening weather cell.
The Knights, who toppled undefeated No. 1 seed Rio Rancho in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, scored the first run on a fielder’s choice ground ball in the top of the first. La Cueva countered with two in the bottom half. Carris smacked an RBI single up the middle, and later scored himself on a passed ball.
Then La Cueva suffered a bizarre defensive meltdown in the top of the second, with three throwing errors. That led to a pair of unearned runs, a three-run outburst and a 4-2 Oñate lead.
In the bottom of the second, Oñate starter Jacob Limas struck out the first two Bears he faced, but he walked the next two, and the Knights paid for it.
With two outs and two strikes, Carris delivered a huge swing for La Cueva, knocking a two-out, two-run single opposite field to right to tie the game following those two walks.
“Akili, that’s what he does,” Pineda said. “That’s why we have him hitting where we have him (in the 3 hole). When he’s at the plate with guys on, we have a shot.”
La Cueva went in front 5-4 in the third. Kolby Burton singled to open the at-bat, stole second, and advanced to third base on a ground ball out.
A fly ball to left off the bat of Matthew Dinae —it was dropped but still technically is recorded as a sacrifice fly — put the Bears ahead 5-4. Max McGaha’s RBI single in the fifth gave the Bears much-needed insurance.
Meanwhile, Manyo was extremely effective over the final five innings for La Cueva.
“He’s amazing,” Carris said. “The kid started throwing less than a year ago and he’s our No. 2 guy and he’s starting in the state semifinal game, and taking us to the championship game? I can’t explain how much I love the kid.”
Pineda had admiration for Manyo, as well.
“He really gutted it out,” Pineda said. “Probably the best he’s pitched all year.”
Manyo retired the Knights in order in the third, fifth and sixth innings, overcame a baserunner in the fourth and got two harmless fly balls in the seventh after Oñate got runners to first and second with one out.
“They battled off me,” Manyo said. “Every hitter gave them a chance; it was definitely one of the tougher games I’ve pitched this year. … I just threw my heart out.”
Oñate (14-8) was trying to reach its first big-school championship game in baseball since 2008.
Pineda is going to coach the Bears this weekend, then rejoin his wife and family in Phoenix on Sunday.
“I think she got a little tired of me in the hospital room and told me to leave,” Pineda said good naturedly. “She’s an amazing woman who wants us to win as much as I do.”
NO. 4 LA CUEVA 6, NO. 8 ONATE 4
Oñate 130 000 0 — 4 4 2
La Cueva 221 010 x — 6 7 3
Batteries: O, Jacob Limas, Diego Quiñones (3) and Tyler McCann. LC, Tyler Manyo and David Cooper. Win: Mayno (6-1). Loss: Limas. Leading hitters: O, Matt Hall 1-3, RBI. LC, Akili Carris, 2-3, 3RBIs; Kolby Burton 2-2. Records: LC 17-3; O 14-8.