The Douglas Bulldogs saw their baseball season come to an end Saturday with a 5-0 loss to the Sahuarita Mustangs in the first round of the 4A Division II state playoffs.

The Bulldogs end the year with a 14-14 record.

Four teams from the Gila Region made it into the state tournament; Sahuarita was the only one to advance to the second round.

No. 16 seed Amphi was pounded 13-0 by No.1 seed Scottsdale Notre Dame. Fifth seeded Catalina was upset 4-3 by 12th seeded Higley.

“This was not the way we wanted to end our season,” Douglas’ baseball coach Gilbert Rojas said. “We felt going in we had an opportunity to win.”

The Bulldogs had beaten the Mustangs earlier in the season at Sahuarita only to lose to the eventual regular season champions when they came to Douglas several weeks later.

Ernesto Lopez started the game on the mound for Douglas and went five innings giving up three runs off four hits.

Ramon Acosta threw one inning in relief and gave up two runs off one hit.

The fast paced game zipped along and both teams were scoreless going into the bottom of the fifth when Sahuarita scored three runs off three hits and an error taking a 3-0 lead.

The Mustangs added two more runs in the sixth increasing their lead to 5-0.

The Bulldogs finished the game with just four hits. AJ Acosta, Oliver Mariscal, Ryan Valencia and Jesus Salazar each were 1 for 3.

Coach Rojas said Lopez had a no-hitter going into the fifth when Sahuarita managed to put three straight hits together.

“It wasn’t anything he did,” the coach said. “They just put the bat on the ball.”

Rojas said Sahuarita took better advantage of its scoring opportunities and that’s why they’re going to the second round.

The loss was the second straight for Douglas who on May 4 was defeated 10-3 by Amphi in the regional tournament. Amphi would later lose to Sahuarita.

Acosta, Victor Machado and Pedro Cruz each threw this game.

Acosta hit 1 for 2, Aguirre 1 for 4 and Joel Barredo 1 for 1.

The Bulldogs committed eight errors this game.

Looking back on the season Rojas admits it was an interesting season with some strange things happening along the way.

“We played some very good games and some not so good games,” he said.

All-Region honors are expected to be handed out later this week. Rojas expects several of his players to make the all region squad.