Coming off the back of a tough Grand Canyon Region loss to Coconino High School, the Mingus Union High School baseball team reacted in the best way possible, against the most ideal opponent possible, with some of the highest stakes possible.
In a matchup between the region’s top two teams, the Marauders beat rival Flagstaff High School 14-4 in five innings on Tuesday, April 10. After going down 3-1 early, they took the lead in the third inning and never let up en route to their first win over the Eagles 8-3, 5-3 Grand Canyon] since 2015.
“I think it kind of started with our last loss to Coconino, it was more of a gut-check to us,” Mingus head coach Erick Quesada said. “It was, ‘How are we going to respond when things aren’t going our way?’ Against Coconino it went the other way, but this was really a testament to our guys, saying that we’re going to do whatever it takes to get to what we need to do, and they really responded well.”
On Thursday, April 12, the Marauders [11-3, 7-1 Grand Canyon] completed the season sweep with an 8-4 victory, solidifying their spot at the top of the region standings. In that victory, Mingus junior Justin Tanner led with three RBI while senior Jordan Huey pitched six innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and three walks.
At home on April 10, Tanner started on the mound. He scattered three hits, gave up just one earned run and struck out three, but walked five. Last week the Marauders played in the Wolves Classic, going 3-1 and playing with a focus on batting. They focused on it again leading up to the game, and it paid off.
They racked up 17 hits, including seven for extra bases, against five Flagstaff pitchers. Marauders senior catcher Justin Link, Huey and junior first baseman Angel Betancourt all went three for four, although Link was intentionally walked in his fourth at bat.
“We work on it every single day in practice and we say, ‘We over me’ all the time,” Quesada said. “You want to get a hit obviously, but again it’s, ‘What’s more important, a win or a hit?’ You see all the time my guys are sacrificing themselves for the better of the team.”
Despite the satisfying ending, the game started off rough for the Marauders. Mingus senior right fielder Martin Soria battled the sun in the first inning, letting two fly balls drop in that eventually turned into a 2-0 deficit. After scoring a run in the first, Mingus went down 3-1 in the second, but battled back to take the lead at 4-3 in the home half of the inning.
In the bottom of the third, Betancourt doubled and Huey singled on a pop fly. Link was up next, and had doubled to left field in his previous at bat. This time he made enough contact to clear the left field wall. The blast sparked the wave of momentum that the Marauders rode the rest of the way, opening their advantage to 7-3. It also chased Eagles junior starting pitcher Rylan DoBosh, who gave up four earned runs on seven hits with one walk and zero strikeouts.
“I just went up to the plate making sure I made contact,” Link said. “It always feels good. For one, it always feels good to beat Flag considering they’re our rival, but it felt good to hit that home run. It felt good coming off the bat …. It got our momentum going, we started talking more, we were confident in ourselves so it kind of got the whole team going.”
Despite giving up a leadoff walk, Tanner struck out two of three Eagles to get out of the fourth quickly. In the bottom of the inning, the Marauders pounded Flagstaff junior left-handed reliever Jakob Woods for seven straight hits.
Mingus junior third baseman Chris Mathe roped an RBI double into left field. After Mathe was called out at home on the following play, the Marauders sprayed base hits between the infield, but only managed to score one more run while stranding three.
Flagstaff got its leadoff batter on base for the fourth time in five innings and turned it into a run. A line drive by Eagles senior first baseman Landon Tinsman bounced off Tanner’s glove, and senior Shane Kuzmin’s base hit drove him in, cutting the Mingus lead to 9-4.
| Grand Canyon Region Standings |
||
|
Team Mingus Lee Williams Flagstaff Coconino Prescott Bradshaw Mountain Mohave |
Region Record 8-1 7-3 6-3 5-5 3-6 3-8 1-8 |
Overall Record 12-3 10-6 10-4 6-8 8-8 6-8 5-10 |
Flagstaff put in senior reliever Nick Cordasco for the fifth, and would not record an out. Mingus senior second baseman Tyre Kim’s base hit scored junior center fielder Bradley Howard from first on a hit and run play. Mathe doubled in two more runs and Betancourt picked up his second RBI to make it 13-4.
At the Wolves Classic on April 6, Soria hit a walk-off against 6A Trevor G. Browne High School. He had the chance to do the same, and will have earned the forgiveness of his teammates as he hit the game-clinching RBI on a fly ball to deep left field.
“I couldn’t see anything [in the first inning], but that’s all I’ve got to say there,” Soria said. “It felt really good. Overall I’m still disappointed in myself because of the beginning of the game and it could have gone different ways. But overall I’m happy I got the winning hit …. We did good as a team, we played together, we had fun and we’ve just got to keep it going.”
The Marauders played at 3:30 p.m. Monday, April 16, at Prescott High School. They travel to Lee Williams High School for a doubleheader at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21.
