Centennial herds Arbor View out of playoffs

The Arbor View baseball team made the Class 4A Sunset Region playoffs each of its first three seasons. But the Aggies are the odd team out in the Northwest League this time around.

Centennial’s Sam Friend scored on an error in the bottom of the seventh inning as the host Bulldogs kept Arbor View out of the playoffs with a 6-5 win Wednesday.

The Aggies (22-9, 8-6 Northwest) came in tied with Legacy for fourth place but would have qualified for the postseason with a victory.

Instead, Arbor View finished in fifth place ­— Legacy routed second-place Palo Verde, 10-1 — and Centennial (22-10, 10-4) earned the No. 3 seed and will play either Spring Valley or Sierra Vista in the opening round of the playoffs.

“To come on the road and play hard and as well as we did, the kids have nothing to be ashamed of,” Aggies coach Robert Salazar said. “My hat’s off to the other guys in the division. They got it done when they had to.”

Arbor View trailed 5-2 before rallying in the top of the sixth inning.

Junior Marquis Towers doubled home Josh Arnold and Nick Moll, and Zach Hartman (2-for-4) followed with a run-scoring single off reliever Troy Hunter to make it 5-5.

But in the seventh, Centennial needed just two batters to win it. Friend led off with a single to right, and junior Robby Rosenthal followed with a single. The ball took a nasty hop away from Arnold in right field, and Friend scored from first, sliding around the tag of catcher Sean Reilly.

“It’s nice to know we did it all ourselves and we’re in the playoffs now,” said Rosenthal, who went 3-for-4, including a solo home run in the first inning. “Our outfield has a lot of bumps. I thought he would keep it in front, but when I saw it hop away, I knew we did it.”

Friend finished 3-for-4, and No. 5 hitter Blaine Bevilacqua was 3-for-3 as the heart of Centennial’s lineup was a combined 9-for-11 with three RBIs and four runs scored.

“Robby found his stroke the last two weeks,” Centennial coach Charlie Cerrone said. “He was in a small slump, but like all good hitters he came out of it at the right time.”

Towers was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, and senior Chris Manning finished 2-for-3 with a home run.