The Sabino Sabercats are used to postseason play, just not this way. Sabino won the 2019 and 2021 3A state championships, and the team has qualified for state every year since 2017, but this year the Sabercats had to literally play their way into the state playoffs by beating Page 13-3 at home Saturday afternoon.

Every conference, except for the 1A Conference, utilizes a “Play-In” phase where teams ranked from No. 9-24 at the end of the regular season meet in a one-day tournament to decide which eight teams will travel to play the top eight teams in the opening round of the state playoffs. The top two teams in each region earns a berth to the postseason in the 3A Conference so having the Conference Play-In Tournament removes the chance of a higher-ranked team getting bumped from the playoffs by a region qualifier that is ranked outside of the top 16.

This year, No. 18 Chino Valley and No. 20 Winslow were automatic qualifiers but both squads finished outside of the top 16. Had there not been a Play-In phase then No. 13 Show Low and No. 15 ALA-Ironwood would have been sent home.

As it turned out, Chino Valley earned a spot in the state playoffs by beating ALA-Ironwood 4-1 and Winslow beat Show Low 6-3 on Saturday. Both of these games were decided on the diamond, not on a piece of paper. They were the only “upsets” in the 3A Conference. There were three upsets in the 4A Conference, two in the 5A Conference and none in the 6A Conference. The 2A Conference will host that Play-In Tournament on May 3.

Page took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning after the team collected five singles but that was the last time the Sand Devils would reach with Max Lialios taking over on the mound from there. Lialios shut down the last 15 batters in the game with six of those outs coming on strikeouts.

Sabino got two back in the bottom of the first on a 2-RBI single from Cris Miranda and the team took the lead for good with three runs in the third. Sabino added four more in the fourth, one in the fifth and three in the sixth for the 13-3 run-rule victory. Miranda went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 RBI, Hayden Green went 3-4 with 3 RBI and Matt Kalberer went 2-2. Austin Miller got the start for Sabino and Chad Wood took the ball for Page.

No. Sabino will travel to play No. 7 Eastmark on Tuesday to open up the 3A state playoffs. The first two rounds in the 3A playoffs are single elimination but the semifinal round will be a best-of-three format. The state championship game will also be one game and that final is slated for May 16 at Tempe Diablo Stadium.