By MIKE COTE
Sports
Los Alamos Daily Post

The Los Alamos Hilltopper baseball team, despite finishing 15 games above .500, drew only a No. 9 seed and will have to travel this weekend to face an old rival, Albuquerque Academy.

Los Alamos will face Academy in a best-of-three series starting Friday and continuing through Saturday.

This will be the third, fourth and possibly fifth time the teams face off this season. Academy won both the previous matchups in 2023, clubbing Los Alamos in the first game, 11-1, but just holding off Los Alamos in the second meeting, 6-4.

The Hilltoppers head into the playoffs on a 15-game winning streak – they haven’t lost in over a month and rolled through District 2-4A with little trouble. They have outscored their opponents by a better than 2-to-1 clip.

The Chargers, for their part, finished 14-10 and were the runners-up in District 6 behind Valley, which is the three seed in the Class 4A postseason.

The Chargers got off to a slow start this season, going just 1-3 in their first four games before their first win over Los Alamos.

The winner of this weekend’s best-of-three series will likely face the top-seeded Grants Pirates (21-5) in the second round.

Pojoaque Valley was the only other team from District 2 to qualify for the tournament. Pojoaque Valley picked up the No. 15 seed and will face second-seeded St. Pius X.