BY JAMES YODICE / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
With one crack of his bat, Devan Johnson simultaneously walked off both the St. Pius Sartans and this COVID-tinted high school sports year.
The final game in this sprint of a New Mexico spring/summer prep calendar yielded one of its most indelible and jaws-agape moments. Johnson’s one-out, three-run double to the gap in left-center sent sixth-seeded Albuquerque Academy to a pulsating, 8-7 victory over No. 1 St. Pius in the Class 4A state baseball final at Santa Ana Star Field on Saturday night.
The Sartans (17-3) scored five runs in the top of the seventh for a 7-4 lead.
Then Academy (17-6) conjured its own magic, scoring four in the bottom half for its first baseball championship since 2015.
And this was perhaps the most meaningful single victory in the history of the program.
“Couldn’t get any better,” Academy coach Chris Alexander said.
Watch the coverage on KRQE: Academy Baseball Wins in a Thriller
