Nogales rallies to beat Canyon View, keeps its baseball season alive
Luis Martin Romero wasted no time sending Nogales into the 5A state baseball semifinals Monday night at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, the right-handed hitting Romero, on the first pitch, ripped a shot into left field to score a run and walk off Nogales' 5-4 win over Waddell Canyon View.
"I was waiting for a slider," Romero said. "That's what he threw me the last time. Luckily, it was outside and I took it the other way.
"It's just an amazing feeling. It's something you carry with you. Senior year. You keep your team alive."
No. 3 Nogales will get a rematch with No. 2 Queen Creek Casteel, which run-ruled Nogales 10-0 in five innings last week.
That semifinal game will be played Wednesday at 4 p.m., at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.
Casteel will have six days off before playing again. Nogales (25-7) has had to fight back through the double-elimination tournament.
But the Apaches have been here before, grinding through extra-inning games.
They found themselves down 2-0 in the first two innings, before tying it in the bottom of the second inning on RBIs by Denzel Montijo and Jorge Amaya.
A two-out error by Canyon View led to two more runs by Nogales in the third.
Tyler Vanmeter and Ashton Zacher both drove in runs in the fourth with singles to tie the score.
Romero started the game on the mound, but Nogales coach O.J. Favela handed the ball to his ace, junior left-hander Sal Valenzuela in the seventh with a runner on second and one out.
Valenzuela, who couldn't get out of the second inning in the loss to Casteel last week, struck out the next two batters he faced. He gave up a hit in the eighth but got out of that inning not allowing a runner advance past second.
"He had to come out and be him," Favela said of Valenzuela, who has committed to Arizona. "You saw what he could do. We have faith in everybody."
Valenzuela put the Casteel outing behind him. He had control problems in that loss. But he bounced back finding the strike zone with overpowering stuff.
"All you can do is work harder," Valenzuela said. "I came into the game very confident, trying to help out my team."
In the later semifinal Wednesday, No. 1 Tucson Catalina Foothills will take on No. 4 Horizon in another rematch. After Horizon beat Catalina Foothills 8-4 last week, Catalina Foothills (25-2-1) beat No. 5 Scottsdale Chaparral 6-5 on Monday night in the elimination game.
Chaparral scored four runs in the top of the seventh to make it close.
Senior Anthony Diaz homered for Catalina Foothills, which scored four runs in the first two innings.
Ethan Bell pitched 6 1/3 innings for Catalina Foothills before sophomore Ganon Dwyer came on to get the last two outs.
For subscribers: The Republic's Top 10 Arizona high school baseball players of the week: May 1-6
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nogales baseball moves on to 5A semifinals on Romero's walkoff hit
