Facing elimination in the Class 1A state baseball playoffs down three runs in the seventh inning, No. 6 seed Baboquivari rallied for four runs to beat No. 3 Kearny Ray on Saturday in a quarterfinal game.
Baboquivari (17-7) will play No. 2 Heber Mogollon on Friday night at 6:30 in the semifinals at Goodyear. The Warriors have never advanced this far in the state playoffs in school history.
Zachary Jose pitched a complete game to get the win for Baboquivari, which has won seven of its last eight games.
Class 2A State Quarterfinals
No. 3 Bisbee had a complete-game performance from Eduardo Vasquez with 13 strikeouts and had five different players drive in at least run, led by Eddie Alvarez‘s two RBIs, in the Pimas’ 7-0 win over No. 6 Alchesay on Saturday.
Bisbee (21-7) will play No. 10 Morenci in the 2A semifinals on Friday at Goodyear with first pitch at 6:30 p.m.
Vasquez, Manny Amaya, J.C. Avechuco and Francisco Urcadez each drove in run against Alchesay for the Pumas, who have won six consecutive games.
Vasquez allowed only five hits through his seven innings of work.
Class 3A Quarterfinals
No. 4 Sahuarita and No. 6 Sabino will comprise half of the 3A semifinals following their wins Saturday at Surprise.
Sahuarita defeated No. 5 Yuma Catholic 4-3 and Sabino run-ruled No. 14 Fountain Hills 10-0.
Morgan Altherr walkoff home run for Sabino pic.twitter.com/lf7vRntu5K
— Richard Obert (@azc_obert) May 4, 2019
Sahuarita (23-5) will play No. 9 Northwest Christian in one semifinal Saturday at Surprise and Sabino (22-6) will face No. 2 American Leadership Academy in the other. Both games start at 6:30 p.m.
There’s a strong possibility the championship game will be played in the Tucson area on May 13 if Sabino and Sahuarita win their semifinal games.
Great weekend, 2 wins moving on to the semifinals next Saturday against Northwest Christian. Game time 6:30pm Surprise baseball complex pic.twitter.com/6x64wMk56c
— Sahuarita Baseball (@SahuaritaB) May 5, 2019
Morgan Altherr went 2 for 3 with a home run for the Sabercats in their victory on Saturday. Andres Villasenor had three RBIs for Sabino and Brayden Graham went 2 for 2 with an RBI.
Mike Snyder allowed only one hit in his five innings of work for Sabino. He struck out seven and walked one.
Congratulations to Sabino Baseball beating Fountain Hills 10-0 to advance to the State Semi-Finals next Saturday at 6:30 in Surprise! @sabinoathletics @sabinobatcats @JavierJMorales @AZPreps365Andy pic.twitter.com/4KmXlCRgXm
— Jay Campos (@jaycampos7) May 4, 2019
Sahuarita rallied in the sixth inning to beat Yuma Catholic. The game was tied at three in the bottom of the sixth when Antonio Ybarra singled on the first pitch of the at bat, scoring one run.
Devin Alvarez got the win for Sahuarita pitchint 1 2/3 innings of relief, allowing one run on three hits, striking out five and walking one. Trey Meza started and lasted 5 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out 10.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.