Salpointe Catholic’s Conner Raetzman slides into home plate behind Flagstaff catcher Tristen Figueroa during the bottom of the sixth inning of Saturday’s Class 4A state playoff game. Salpointe won 10-1.

 Rebecca Sasnett, Arizona Daily Star

Salpointe Catholic opened the Class 4A state baseball tournament slowly, then cruised to a first-round win.

The third-seeded Lancers (19-10) beat No. 14-seeded Flagstaff (14-15) 10-1 at home on Saturday after the Eagles led for 3½ innings.

“Slow start, we had to make some adjustments, didn’t see a whole lot of velo from their arm and set us back a couple innings,” said Salpointe coach Danny Preble. “We needed to make some adjustments, which we finally did — not as early as I would have liked, but we made our adjustments and got out of here with a win.”

Flagstaff jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first with a sacrifice fly.

Salpointe sophomore Jose Simon started the Lancers’ scoring with a solo home run in the fourth inning. Senior Owen Guest drove in a run, junior Josh Burke hit an RBI double and senior Mauro Acuna drove in pair as the Lancers batted around in the fourth.

“It felt good, everyone got hyped, it felt like a normal state game that we would play in, like every other game, like a CDO game,” said Salpointe senior Robert Lopez. “It felt good.”

Lopez got the win, striking out 12 Eagles.

Flagstaff finished the regular season ranked 20th in the state. It upset No. 13 Flagstaff Coconino on Wednesday in a conference play-in game to book a place in the state tournament. Coconino won the two regular-season games.

Meanwhile, Salpointe limped into the tournament, losing to No. 4 Canyon del Oro 6-1 and 5A No. 1 Nogales 12-1 to close out the regular season.

“It’s definitely been a tough rebuild since last year and being on that team, being one of the kind of bench guys on that team, I was able to see what goes on,” Guest said. “We’re not down, we’re just different that’s really what it comes down to and we have a lot of guys here who are really talented, really good baseball players and I think we’re gonna be able to get this done.”

In the fifth inning, Guest hit another RBI single; an inning later, senior Mason White hit a three-run homer and junior Conner Raetzman hit an inside-the-park homer.

After using a single-elimination format last year, the state tournament features a single-elimination first round, then a double-elimination quarterfinals and semifinals, followed by a winner-take-all championship game.

Salpointe will take on No. 6 Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep on Monday at home. Notre Dame beat Phoenix St. Mary’s 10-0 in five innings in the first round.

Salpointe beat Notre Dame 11-1 in five on April 9.

“Like Flag, we’re good buddies with their coaching staff, they’re good dudes,” Preble said. “We tend to play them fairly often, we’ve played them already this year once, good ballgame, and we’ll gather ourselves.”

Inside pitch

This is the fourth time Salpointe has faced Flagstaff in a state tournament this school year. On Feb. 16 Salpointe upset Flagstaff on the road in the girls soccer quarterfinals. Then on Feb. 28 the Lancers clipped the Eagles in the girls basketball championship game. Finally on Apr. 27, Salpointe won the beach volleyball championship match over Flagstaff. Last year in the baseball tournament, the Lancers knocked out Flagstaff in the quarterfinals. When the brackets were revealed, Flagstaff baseball’s account tweeted “Of course it had to be Salpointe. Let’s go!!!”

Salpointe finished second in the 2021 state tournament, won the state title in 2019 and finished second in 2017. In 1996 and 1997 Salpointe finished second in the state tournament.

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