Albuquerque, N.M. – La Cueva’s 28th straight victory was the biggest one of all.
Battering the depleted Cleveland pitching staff, the Bears rode 14 hits and a solid performance by their hurlers, especially reliver Wes Alexanderson, to an emphatic 10-4 victory over local rival Cleveland Saturday night in the Class 6A state championship game at Isotopes Park.
La Cueva, which finished 28-1 with the lone loss coming on opening day to Valley, captured its first state title since 2014.
“Playing with all these guys behind me, I wouldn’t have asked to play with any other dude behind me,” an emotional Jonathan Stroman told NMPreps amidst the championship celebrations. “These guys are the real deal. They have the most heart. They fight, they don’t care what’s happening, they’re going to win. We proved that this year.”
Cleveland scored first on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first but La Cueva didn’t trail for long. They opened the top of the second with a single, double and sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-1 before Austin Schlagel laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Chris Campbell (opposite field double) with the go-ahead run.
However, La Cueva starter Devin Borin continued to labor in the bottom of the second, struggling with his control. Three walks and a wild pitch allowed Cleveland to tie the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the second.
Borin was lifted in favor of Wes Alexanderson, who got a fly to right for the final out, allowing the Bears to escape the inning with minimal damage.
Cleveland didn’t score again until the sixth inning as Alexanderson held the Storm offense in check.
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“We liked where we were coming into the game as far as our rotation goes,” Pineda said. “We felt there weren’t going to be many staffs that were as deep as we were. We’ve thought that all year and this weekend was the same. We started Devin and there was a possibility he could have gone the entire game and done well. He struggled, obviously, but that was why we held Wes back and started Devin instead. We believed Wes would be a nice card to play when he came in.”
La Cueva regained the lead at 3-2 in the top of the third on a pair of singles and a fielding error (dropped throw by the pitcher at first base).
La Cueva’s eighth hit of the game came in the top of the fifth and it was the biggest blow of the game to that point: a two-run triple into the right-center gap by Isaac Standridge.
Cleveland changed pitchers after Standridge’s rocket gave the Bears a 5-2 lead.
The Storm threatened in the bottom of the fifth, putting two runners on base with two outs, but consecutive flyouts got La Cueva out of the inning without Cleveland scoring.
That missed opportunity proved costly for Cleveland in the top of the sixth when Ryan Johnson drilled an opposite field two-run double down the right field line that the Cleveland outfielder bobbled and the ball popped into the stands.
Johnson reached third on the error and scored seconds later on a wild pitch, giving La Cueva an 8-2 lead. The Bears tacked on two more runs before the end of the inning and took a seemingly insurmountable 10-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
La Cueva totaled 14 hits when the top of the sixth ended.
Cleveland didn’t quit, though. The first two batters in the bottom of the sixth singled and tripled, making it 10-3. But that was all the Storm got as the next three batters were retired.
Cleveland made things a little bit interesting in the bottom of the seventh, scoring one run on a ground rule double before La Cueva’s celebrations began.
Within moments after the game, La Cueva players were holding the championships trophy as Bears fans clapped and cheered and took photos.
“The 28 straight wins is great and something we’ll have forever and the state championship is something we’ll have forever,” Stroman said. “These guys are brothers. Every single one of them. No matter who you ask, we have each other’s back. That’s what I’m going to take away from this team.
“This brotherhood is unbreakable.”
