For Queen Creek’s Diego Armenta, it was a case of familiarity.

Faced with a walk-off situation in last year’s 6A state championship game, the then sophomore stepped to the plate with a chance to end the game and give his team a tournament title.

And although his team came out victorious, Armenta didn't deliver.

Fast forward to Saturday night’s prestigious Boras Foundation Championship game at Scottsdale Chaparral HS, with the Bulldogs locked in a 5-5 battle with Nevada Reno in the bottom of the seventh inning and two outs.

It was déjà vu for Armenta, but this time the outcome was different.

With Jett Berry on second (single), Manny Hoyos on first (hit by pitch), two outs and facing a 1-1 count, Armenta smoked a ball into the right-center gap, scoring Berry from second for the 6-5 win.

“Last year, in the state championship, I had a chance to walk it off, but I didn’t. But this year I did it,” Armenta said. “It was going through my head, but I got it done.”

As if the game ending winning hit wasn’t enough, Armenta also got the win on the mound, pitching a four-up-three-down top of the seventh to set up his late game heroics.

Oh, he also added a solo homer to left-center in the third that gave Queen Creek a 5-4 lead. He had himself quite a day in one of the biggest stages in the nation during the baseball season. 

“I remind (Armenta) of that. We take no prisoners. We’re brutally honest, so I have been honest with him. We don’t run from our failures,” explained Bulldogs’ head coach Mikel Moreno about his expectations of Armenta leading up to his clutch at bat.

And as influential a performance as it was, there were others that enabled the defending 6A state champs to navigate their way through the very tough tournament.

Nevada Reno took a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, scoring runs on a bases loaded balk and then a wild pitch.

But in the bottom of the first, Queen Creek responded with a pair of its own.

With Alex Gamboa (single) on base, Berry stepped in and parked a ball deep over the left field fence, briefly tying up the game at 2-2.

Later in the inning, after a single by Hoyos and double off the bat of Jordan Ransom, sophomore Tosh Schneider promptly singled them both in for a 4-2 lead.

In the visitor’s half of the second, an error put one on. Then, four of the next five batters reached on singles, producing two runs (by Nathan Chick and Dawson Planeta) and tying the game back up at 4-4.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our club. Our club is made up of eight sophomores, five or six seniors and some juniors, and we had two sophomores on the mound there at the end,” said Reno coach Pete Savage.

Armenta’s solo shot in the third offset a bases loaded hit batter that scored a run for Reno in the fifth, setting the stage for the seventh.

“I am just really proud of the team. It was a good environment. We had guys step up. It was really a good indicator of how hard our boys work,” Moreno added.