Head baseball coach Bob Young’s latest section title-winning team at Mingus Union High School grew up fast in the past couple of weeks.
“We were real inconsistent up until about the last two weeks,” he said. “There’s a lot of games we’d like to have back. Our pitching and defense has been pretty good all the way through.”
Better hitting is what has been the hallmark of a six-game winning streak for MUHS [21-7], which culminated in an
18-2 mauling of Show Low High School on Thursday, April 21.
Senior Zack Abrigo struck out six in four innings for his seventh win, also batting in two runs and scoring three runs.
Sophomore Tyler Kelly uncorked a grand slam to highlight a 13-run second inning. Catcher Gus Henley also had two doubles to go with a double and a triple by fellow junior Mitchell Lindsay, who has been “phenomenal” the last two weeks, Young said.
“For a long time, it was Tyler and Gus, then somebody else would come up,” Young said. “The last couple of weeks, Mitchell Lindsay’s been our best hitter. He’s really set the table.”
Senior Tristan Clark also had a double and a triple on his way to four RBIs.
“The last couple games, Tristan’s gotten hot,” Young said. “[Sophomore] Jose Pacheco’s really struggled; now he’s gotten hot. ”
So despite the five-inning run-ruling of the Cougars, the Marauders, ranked fourth in Division III by the Arizona Interscholastic Association, still needed help to avoid losing the Section I title to the only opponent to beat them, Winslow High School. That night, the Marauders would get the help they needed at Payson High School, their third victim in the streak, who would edge the Bulldogs, 4-3.
“We’ve done what we can do,” Young said Friday, April 22. “All we can do is get ready for State, and whoever we play, we play. We’ve played five games under those surroundings, so we know what to expect.”
They lost three of those games by one run April 7 through 9, though, at the Wolves Classic at Estrella Foothills High School, the Marauders’ second tournament.
“There weren’t a whole lot of happy people after that one,” Young said. “We had to have better practices; we had to focus more in games. We haven’t lost since then, so hopefully they learned from that.”
To do that, Young plans to bear down on the team in the practices prior to Wednesday and Thursday, April 27 and 28, when he will “ratchet it down a little bit — just do a lot more hitting and fundamentals.”
“Make it a living hell for them,” he joked. “I’m good at that.”
As for whether Abrigo, Lindsay or sophomore left-hander Jordan Huey will get the call in the Marauders’ first-round matchup the next day, Young did not specify.
For full state baseball playoff schedules, please see the Wednesday, April 27, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
