The rivalry between Mingus Union and Bradshaw Mountain high schools had become rather lopsided lately.
This year, it was all Bears in basketball and football, leaving it to senior pitcher Orlando Machado on the baseball diamond, where head coach Bob Young had not tasted victory over Bradshaw since a 19-16 scorefest in 2011.
Machado’s complete game Tuesday, April 7, changed all that, as the Marauders also took advantage of five Bears errors to decisively beat them at home, 8-3.
“This was the one team I wanted to beat, for sure,” said Machado after striking out six Bears, tossing a shutout through the first four innings to help secure the win for the Marauders in their Section IV opener. “I told coach Young, I wanted the mound. He agreed with it.”
The win not only ended a five-game MUHS losing streak to its Prescott Valley rivals, it also gives the Marauders, ranked eighth in Division II by the Arizona Interscholastic Association, the early edge in the battle for their section’s top seed in the state tournament.
“He was in the zone,” Young said. “He hadn’t beat Bradshaw, so he wanted to beat those guys before he graduated.”
Ninth-ranked Coconino High School, which will visit Friday, April 17, has one more divisional victory to its credit.
For the full story and more photos, please see the Wednesday, April 8, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
