Midnight struck three hours early on Mingus Union High School’s baseball season Friday, May 13 — and head coach Bob Young knew it.
“We knew we couldn’t do this every night,” the Section I Coach of the Year said after a third straight Marauders comeback fell just short of eventual state champion Alhambra High School in the Division III semifinals, 8-7. “It’s hard to win a state championship.”
Another Marauders rally, this time from five runs down, fell a run short, as two 375-foot drives to deep center field were hauled in for Mingus’ final two outs in its Division III state tournament.
“We hit the ball at the end, but we never quit,” Young said. “They scored more than we did.”
Senior starting pitcher Zack Abrigo, who was also honored as Player of the Year in his section Saturday, May 14, took the loss, allowing four runs in the first two-and-one-third innings before giving way to junior Mitchell Lindsay.
Lindsay, a strong candidate for ace of the pitching staff next spring, got the next seven outs but gave up three more runs in the face of a persistent Alhambra attack that scored every inning.
Sophomore Tyler Kelly, who scored to give the Marauders a 2-0 first-inning lead after his one-out RBI double, also gave up a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth inning to Lions top pitcher Aldo Fernandez.
The insurance run became the game-winner for Alhambra after the Lions had rallied to tie the score in the bottom of the first, then opened up a 7-2 lead by the end of the fifth inning.
“Even when it seemed like it wasn’t going our way, we always fight back,” said catcher Gus Henley, a first-team all-Section player as a junior. “Without words, without saying it, we just decided we were going to fight for every last pitch we could.”
That rally started in the top of the sixth inning, as sophomore Andrew Kulis singled to load the bases before Lindsay was walked, pulling the Marauders to within four runs.
Center fielder Tristan Clark, who will study to be a dentist on scholarship at Northern Arizona University in the fall, came through next with another clutch two-out hit, pulling the Marauders to within 7-5.
“We have a great group of sophomores coming up,” said Clark after what was likely his final at-bat of his baseball career, he added. “Honestly, we’re like one big family. There’s no better way to go out of high school than on a team like this.”
Although fellow senior Trey Pettijohn could not plate Clark or Kulis from scoring position as a pinch-hitter, striking out, Mingus would not go quietly in its final three outs.
Senior Fernando Chavez started the seventh by chopping a single up the middle past lunging Lions starter Jesus Aldaz, finally running him in favor of Fernandez, whom the Marauders had beaten on the road April 18.
“I never have played for a team that has scrapped so hard,” said Chavez, who added that he had to talk some of his younger teammates, unaccustomed to Young, out of quitting the team earlier in the season. “We only got here because we have a special connection. I’m jealous that these guys get to play one more year with each other.”
Fernandez would not settle down, walking Kelly and sophomore shortstop Skylar Waynick to load the bases with nobody out. Even after Henley struck out, Abrigo was hit by a Fernandez fastball, making him the lead run at first base with one out, down 8-6.
Kulis, an infield starter and key component in Mingus’ playoff run despite missing the entire regular season with a foot injury, connected next on a high fastball into left-center field. But Lions center fielder Javier Hernandez would make the defensive play of the Division III postseason, hauling in the ball over his shoulder on a dead run at the warning track.
Waynick would still tag up from third base, but the slim lead held up for Alhambra after Lindsay’s two-out fly ball was hit straight to Hernandez to end the Marauders season at 24-9.
“We went out with a bang,” Henley said. “Honestly, I don’t think we should’ve lost that game. I think we should be the team celebrating.”
For more photos and full all-Section selections for Mingus Union High School baseball, please see the Wednesday, May 18, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
