Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.
Albuquerque's American Legion team had played just one game under the lights this summer, but you wouldn't have guessed from the way the New Mexicans saw the ball late Thursday night.
Twice down to its last out, Albuquerque rallied for a wild 10-9 win over Centennial in 10 innings on day one of the Western Regional Tournament at the Community College of Southern Nevada.
'I was very concerned with the lights," New Mexico coach Kevin Andersh said. "We don't have a lot of facilities in Albuquerque with lights, so we'd only played one game at night. And we knew Centennial was a quality team with a good record."
The Bulldogs appeared to have the game in hand in the bottom of the ninth, leading 8-5 with two outs and no one on base. But after pitcher Will Scarlett hit Ramon Romero with a pitch and Andrew Salas singled, William Hogan belted a double off the wall in left-center, cutting the deficit to a single run.
Pinch runner Joshua Giles scored moments later on back-to-back Scarlett wild pitches, tying the game and forcing extra innings.
"We made all kids of mental mistakes and physical mistakes, and deserved to get beat," Centennial coach Kirk Primas said.
Centennial regained control briefly in the top of the 10th, going ahead 9-8 when John Kahre's sacrifice fly scored Daniel Ramirez.
But after getting the first two outs in the bottom half, Bulldog reliever Jordan Smiley was unable to close it out. Pat Rooney started the rally with a double, then Andrew Baca reached when Centennial catcher Bryce Massanari was unable to hold onto strike three, allowing the ball to roll to the backstop.
After Nicolas McMordie walked to load the bases, Romero and Salas produced consecutive singles to finish the job for the out-of-towners.
"This is probably the best win we've had," Andersh said. "Throughout the year, we always seem to fall short in these (late-inning) opportunities, so it was nice to come through once. Thank God we figured out a way to squeeze out a couple of runs."
Albuquerque (33-14) will continue pool play today at 12 p.m. against Boulder (Colo.), while Centennial (35-9) will match up with Tucson (Ariz.) at 5 p.m.
"We need to come out mentally prepared and not make any excuses," Primas said. "Certainly, they can do it. Will they? We'll see."
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