By Richard Smith
Sunrise Mountain's Kody Decker (#24) scores on a sacrifice fly by Trevor Pruitt (#11) in a 4A semifinal game against Marcos De Niza May 5 at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria. (Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps)
With the Sunrise Mountain baseball team three outs away from a trip the the 4A semifinals, errors ended one of the program's best seasons.
The Mustangs committed five errors in all leading to seven unearned runs, and two were in a four-run top of the seventh for No. 6 Tempe Marcos de Niza. The Padres took advantage and closed out a 7-5 quarterfinal win Friday afternoon at No. 3 Sunrise Mountain.
The game started ominously enogh when an error fielding a ground ball led to a pair of runs.
Sunrise Mountain (26-5) coach Eric Gardner could only talk about what might have been.
“We made five errors and were three outs away," Gardner said. “We couldn’t play defense and we just didn’t take care of the baseball.”
Entering the seventh inning with the Mustangs up 5-3, a walk and stolen base started the frame. An infield ground ball was booted for a run as Padres sophomore Elis Martinez took second.
A walk put runners at first and second. Following a pitching change a passed ball moved the runners to second and third.
A misplayed fly ball resulted in a two runs giving the Padres (21-8) a 6-5 lead and sent the batter, junior Max L'Heureux, all the way to third base. A walk was followed a run-scoring single (unearned) by senior pitcher Jake Denham for the seventh run.
Aside from a single from junior designated hitter EJ Sua, the mustangs went out quietly in their last at bat.
Sunrise Mountain's Daniel Partida (#2) bunts for a single in a 4A semifinal game against Marcos de Niza May 5 at Sunrise Mountain High School in Peoria. (Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps)
The errors spoiled a strong pitching performance from senior Clay Schwaner, Gardner said.
“Clay pitched well, but he was at his pitch count,” Gardner said. “We had other options to throw, and you can second guess yourself."
It looked as if Sunrise Mountain would rebound from their early two-run mistake when senior first baseman Kody Decker hit an RBI double. Following an error, sophomore Jarrett Kellerhals doubled in a pair of runs, tying the score.
Sunrise took the lead in the fourth on a run-scoring groundout, and Marcos came right back in the fifth on an RBI single from Martinez.
The Mustangs grabbed their 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run single by Sua. The Padres loaded the bases in the sixth with two away, but Schwaner got the Marcos hitter to fly out.
The seventh inning was one in which Sunrise Mountain must have felt like the dam was bursting and nothing could be done to save it.
“We had 12 seniors who had a great season, and unfortunately we picked the wrong day, and I feel bad for our seniors. However, they’ll all go on to great college careers,” Coach Gardner said.
