Rio Rancho Rams secured the No. 1 seed in the Class 5A baseball postseason bracket, while Mayfield softball also earned the top seed. The postseason brackets were announced by the New Mexico Activities Association on Sunday.
The champion of New Mexico’s most competitive district earned Class 5A’s No. 1 baseball seed on Sunday.
The Rio Rancho Rams emerged from a fiercely fought five-week battle in 1-5A to be the champion, and the Rams sit on the top line in the 5A postseason bracket, which was revealed Sunday by the New Mexico Activities Association.
Cleveland, La Cueva and Piedra Vista are 2-4, with Centennial, Carlsbad, Eldorado and Mayfield closing out the top eight. Each of the top eight seeds will host first-round, best-of-3 series next weekend.
From a travel standpoint, half of the traveling teams didn’t get it too bad. Rio Grande is at Eldorado, Sandia (the defending state champion which struggled to a 13-13 mark this season) is at Cleveland, Centennial plays Las Cruces, and Atrisco Heritage, the last team in, faces Rio Rancho.
Sandia, Cibola and Atrisco Heritage were determined by the NMAA to be identical in criteria. Atrisco Heritage had an edge on Cibola, which had an edge on Sandia, and Sandia had an edge on Atrisco.
The NMAA evaluated each of the three in all six seeding criteria points, and determined that Sandia had the top rating of the three and thus gained entry into the field.
The Jaguars got in as the last team because of a 15-5 head-to-head victory over Cibola in late March. Ironically, that loss for the Cougars came just three days after they upset La Cueva. Cibola knocked off four of the top seven seeds in the bracket — including Cleveland, Piedra Vista and Eldorado — but that loss to Atrisco was the difference in the Jags earning the 16 seed ahead of the Cougars, NMAA executive director Dusty Young told the Journal.
La Cueva will play host to 14th-seeded Hobbs. Los Lunas, the District 5 champion, will play at Mayfield in the first round.
One other note: Volcano Vista also did not qualify, and this is believed to be the first absence in the 5A bracket for the Hawks.
Artesia is the defending 4A state champion and the Bulldogs, by virtue of their winning a three-game series against Goddard a few days ago, have the No. 1 seed for the 2026 postseason with the Rockets at No. 2.
Albuquerque Academy, the fifth seed, and Hope Christian, the No. 6 seed, earned first-round hosting rights over Los Alamos and Belen, respectively. First-round matchups of note include Lovington-Artesia and ninth-seeded St. Pius at Grants, the eighth seed. The Sartans dropped 7-6 and 4-2 decisions to the Pirates in District 5-4A action.
Valley, at 9-17 against a demanding schedule, qualified as the 14 seed.
One-loss East Mountain was the easy choice as the top seed in 3A. Sandia Prep is the fifth seed, and opens at home against Hot Springs. Eunice is the No. 1 seed in 2A, with Oak Grove Classical Academy seeded 11th. Magdalena’s Steers are top-seeded in the 1A bracket.
Softball: The South, which is the dominant region in Class 5A softball, had the top three seeds in Mayfield, Alamogordo and Organ Mountain.
The Rio Rancho Rams are the No. 1 seed in Class 5A baseball, while Mayfield softball also earned the top seed.
The top eight seeds are Rio Rancho, Cleveland, La Cueva, Piedra Vista, Centennial, Carlsbad, Eldorado, and Mayfield.
The first-round, best-of-3 series for Class 5A baseball will take place next weekend.
The seeds were determined by the New Mexico Activities Association based on performance in the 1-5A district competition.
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Los Lunas’ victory at Albuquerque High last Tuesday in its season finale clearly got the Tigers that much-cherished No. 4 slot, and the Tigers will host a pod in Week 1 that also includes No. 5 seed Cleveland, 12th-seeded Hobbs and Sandia, the 13th seed. That puts the metro’s two highest-ranked teams in the same pod.
“Everybody’s good, so I can see some upsets happening,” Cleveland coach Angel Castillo said.
The state softball format is still relatively new. There are four pods of four teams each, with the top four seeds serving as hosts. The two first-round losers are eliminated. The winners move into the quarterfinals, but both teams advance to Week 2 regardless of the result of that game.
Seventh-seeded Albuquerque High will be in the Alamogordo pod. La Cueva, with an 11 seed, will be in the Organ Mountain pod, as will 14th-seeded Cibola. Volcano Vista, the 8 seed, plus 16th-seeded Rio Rancho, both are headed to Las Cruces to compete in Mayfield’s pod.
St. Pius is the only other metro-area program hosting a first-round pod other than Los Lunas. The Sartans are 4A’s No. 4 seed, and will welcome Lovington, Miyamura and Deming.
Bernalillo, as No. 9 seed, is in Artesia’s pod. Artesia is the top seed. Valley is a 15 seed and in No. 2-seeded Aztec’s pod. Belen was seeded 11th and will be at Silver’s pod. The Colts are the third seed.
Sandia Prep in 3A, like the Sundevils’ baseball team, is seeded fifth. They will play Hatch Valley in the opening round. West Las Vegas carries the top seed. The top four 3A seeds have a first-round bye.
Nobody from the metro area is among the 1A-2A field, where Loving is the division’s No. 1 seed.
James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.