ALBUQUERQUE — The top two teams in the first Class 5A coaches poll of the new season met Tuesday afternoon, with the pollsters apparently making the correct choice.

No. 1 La Cueva (12-1) won its 12th game in a row, beating visiting Rio Rancho (9-4) handily, 7-1, ending what had been an eight-game winning streak for RRHS.

The Rams were coming off a 10-3 victory over Rio Grande in the championship game of the Sal Puentes Invitational in Rio Rancho last Saturday — and the Ravens were the only team to have beaten the defending champion Bears.

Bryer Mueller is out at third after trying to advance on a ball that got past the Ravens catcher last Saturday.

Starting pitcher Austin House (2-0) kept the Rams off balance and stayed ahead in the count, not allowing a Ram to get as far as second base until the fifth inning.

By then, his teammates had staked him to a 4-0 lead off Rams starter Josh Walker (0-1) and reliever Robert Rodela, who took the ball to start the fourth.

The Bears used four hits to score a run in their first at-bats, with a nifty 4-6-3 double play executed by the Rams keeping the damage from being worse.

The Bears added an unearned run in the second, made it 4-0 with a pair of runs — helped by two walks — off Walker in the third and then used a walk, a hit batsman and an RBI single by catcher Mitchell Garver, who went 3 for 3, to make it 5-0 in the fourth.

La Cueva scored twice in the sixth off reliever Blake Swihart for a commanding 7-0 lead.

The Rams got their lone run off reliever Josh McAlister in the seventh.

Ethan McCranie doubled off McAlister and Ben Matheson singled to give the Rams runners on the corners. Alex Wehner slapped a ground ball to second, which was misplayed and scored the run.

McAlister induced Devon Conley to pop out to short, got Walker to fly out to right and fanned Kris Martinez to end the game.

“(House) pitched a really good game,” said RRHS coach Ron Murphy. “That kid had us off-balance, he got us out of synch right away and it kind of affected the rest of our game. We struck out nine times.

“We played really well the last eight games and we knew sooner or later you’ve got to have a game that’s out of synch — and that was the game,” he said. “We played hard and that’s all I can ask for.”

Despite the loss, Murphy wasn’t upset with the possibility his team probably would have been top dog in 5A with a victory on the Bears’ diamond.

“That’s OK. I don’t want to be No. 1 now, I want to be (No. 1) at the end,” he said. “And the year we won state (2007), the first time we played La Cueva, they beat us 11-1 in Roswell.”

The Rams were given Wednesday off, Murphy said, after playing five games in the previous eight days. Their next game is Tuesday at 4 p.m. at West Mesa, a District 1-5A opener.

“We’re going to go scout them,” he said, expecting to see the Mustangs’ game Saturday morning at Del Norte.

Rams 10, Rio Grande 3: The Rams sent 11 batters to the plate in the third inning last Saturday, scoring seven runs and leaving the Ravens in the dust.

Mueller had a two-run double in the outburst, while Martinez had a double and Conley added a triple.

Coupled with two runs they scored in the first, the Rams had a 9-2 lead, as Rio Grande’s Josh Robles had socked a two-run homer off Wehner (4-0) in the second.

The Rams scored their final run in the sixth, after Walker led off with a single and came around to score on a single by Swihart, who matched Walker with a 2-for-4 outing at the plate.

Walker pitched the final two frames, retiring the first five batters he faced before hitting a Raven and walking the next batter in the seventh. He struck out the game’s final hitter to preserve the Rams’ victory.

Extra innings: The Rams also won their own tournament in 2002, ’06 and ’08. It began in 2001 and has had various title sponsors but was named in memory of former Rams baseball and basketball standout Sal Puentes last spring.

… When the Ravens, who beat Eldorado 7-6 in both teams’ District 5-5A opener Tuesday, scored in the second inning Saturday, it ended a 15-inning scoreless streak engineered by Rams pitchers.

… The Rams were ranked second in the first coaches association poll of the season. La Cueva was No. 1, while Las Cruces, the Ravens and Santa Fe were 3-4-5. The Rams, sixth-ranked Oñate and ninth-rankled Sandia each received a vote as No. 1 from a participating coach.