Coach Sean Hegarty isn’t expecting his team to continue to almost run-rule opponents and shut them out.

What he does want is some consistency. Ironwood can’t keep beating a high profile program like Brophy one day and then drop a game to a below .500 team if it wants to go far.

But on Wednesday, Ironwood looked like a polished team in its 9-0 shutout of visiting Dysart of El Mirage. Let’s see if Ironwood can carry some of what it achieved Wednesday into its next games before we declare Ironwood a baseball team to watch this season, though.

“Staying positive for seven innings has been a big deal for us,” Hegarty said. “We’ve been able to maintain that (positiveness) for two or three innings but then it goes down from there. But when they play seven strong innings, (Wednesday’s) outcome is what they expect.”

One Ironwood player who was locked in for seven innings was its workhorse on the mound, Dylon C’ De Baca.

The tall, hard throwing right-hander struck out 14, scattered six hits and didn’t walk a batter during his complete game outing. C’ De Baca struck out seven of Dysart’s final nine batters.

“Today was one of my better pitching days,” C’ De Baca said. “I was hitting my spots today.”

C’ De Baca added a two seamer this year, but he was throwing his curveball for strikes against Dysart.

(Ironwood's Dylon C' De Baca)

The senior said he has some out of state college offers but is looking to play for an in-state school. With lefty Joey Desilva, who beat Brophy in February, and C’ De Baca on the mound, Ironwood might just have one of the ingredients, a good 1-2 punch on the mound, needed to make a postseason run. 

Another ingredient — timely hitting — was on full display for Ironwood Wednesday. Ironwood’s lineup isn’t filled with power hitters, but they do get on base.

Seven of the team’s starters each tallied at least one hit, with Luis Quinonez and Justin DuTemple each going 2 for 4. Ironwood (3-6) scored three runs in the first inning as well as in the second and fourth innings.

Ironwood’s victory over Dysart came during one of the firsts game in the West Valley Tournament, which ends next week.