When an athlete makes a mistake during a pivotal moment of a game, rarely does the opportunity to make up for it present itself.
Fortunately for Mingus Union High School junior outfielder and pitcher Jordan Huey, he was able to break the tie he had just conceded to give the Marauders a 7-6 walk off-win over visiting Grand Canyon Region rival Coconino High School on March 20.
“I thought we battled, I mean we battled our tails off, we played hard for seven innings,” Mingus head coach Bob Young said. “We had some really good clutch at- bats. I thought our pitchers did a good job keeping us in the game.”
It was a defensive game between the Marauders [11-2, 3-0 Grand Canyon] and the Panthers, who mostly scored by taking advantage of one another’s mistakes, which came few and far between.
Huey, coming on from left field, relieved junior starter Jose Pacheco with the game tied at four in the sixth.
Coconino scored an unearned run to go up 5-4, but Mingus, for the second time, came back in the bottom half of the inning.
Already tied at five, Young called a set play to score the then go-ahead run. Runners were at first and third with two outs and two strikes to sophomore right fielder Justin Tanner when Young gave the signal.
Well before Panther senior pitcher Jake Reed went to pitch, junior shortstop Skylar Waynick took off toward second base. Reed intended to catch Waynick in a pickle, but forgot about sophomore center fielder Bradley Howard at third, who touched home before Waynick was caught.
In the seventh, Huey walked the game-tying run, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. A simple RBI single scored the run and junior third baseman Tyler Kelly was brought on for the final out.
The bottom half of the inning saw the mistake-to-make-up come full circle for Huey. He hit a hard ground ball to Panthers senior shortstop Christian Casados, who made a throwing error to first. A run scored by way of an error, this time deadly.
“I think I made up for my mistake, I mean giving up that run pitching — I haven’t been doing too well — so I think coming through in hitting is pretty good,” Huey said.
Marauders junior designated player Andrew Kulis showed heads-up baserunning, not hesitating on the two-out ground ball to score from second base.
“He did a great job on that, he understood the situation,” Young said. “He knew if he [Huey] was safe at first then we were going to score.”
Kulis knocked a two-RBI single to tie the game at four in the fifth after taking a piece of advice from senior catcher Gus Henley, who had just battled with Reed for a walk.
“I told him his curveball was easy to read and his fastball was pretty straight, so get ready for it,” Henley said.
Kelly crushed Reed’s first pitch of the game, one of those easy curveballs, over the left center field fence to go up 1-0, and batted in the second on a sacrifice fly in the second inning.
Kulis led the way with three hits, two RBI and one run scored. Huey gave up one unearned run on two hits paired with two walks and a strikeout, and Kelly earned the win, striking out the only batter he faced. Pacheco, in five innings, gave up two earned runs on seven hits with two punchouts.
Reed allowed six earned runs on nine hits with four walks and three strikeouts. Coconino junior designated player Jake Plecas had a team-high three hits, including a home run, three RBI and one run scored.
On Friday, March 24, the Marauders hosted Saguaro High School, winning 11-10. They were up 9-2 after the second inning and 11-5 after the fourth, but a five-run inning in the fifth for Saguaro saw it almost complete the comeback.
