Baseball: Mesquite bests Red Mtn. to complete 4-0 week

April 4, 2015 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


The motto was sweep the week. Not necessarily a bold decree if a team is playing two games that count toward playoff qualifying. But four? That's another matter.

Mesquite's baseball team completed a 4-0 week on Saturday afternoon, edging Red Mountain, 5-4, in a Division I game at Mesquite High

Mesquite, usually deep in the hunt for baseball supremacy in D-I, improved to 12-8 overall and an impressive 8-2 in power-ranking games. The Wildcats have won five PR games in a row with four coming this week -- Queen Creek (Monday), Corona del Sol (Tuesday), Desert Ridge (Thursday) and Red Mountain. That run of triumphs has vaulted Mesquite solidly in the top five in D-I power-rankings. Perhaps as high as No. 3 when the new ones are posted Monday morning. Red Mountain finds itself 7-12 overall, 4-5 prg.

"We knew it was going to take the whole (pitching) staff," Mesquite coach Jeff Holland said. "I thought we had the ability to do it. The pitching was pretty good, and we got some big hits when they were needed."

Mesquite's starting pitcher Saturday was senior right-hander Jake Suddreth and he responded with five-plus innings of work and picked up the win. Josh Webster and Noah Schoenhardt also notched wins this week. Webster won twice (complete game vs. Queen Creek and in relief vs. Desert Ridge). The Wildcats also got solid work from Noah Cordova, Cobe Karhoff and Bucky Dehority during the week in other games.

The key innings Saturday were Red Mountain's fifth and Mesquite's sixth. Red Mountain put runners on first and second with noone out in the fifth via an error and single. Failing to get a bunt down was costly and the Mountain Lions failed to score that frame with a chance to eat into a 4-2 deficit.

Mesquite made the most of two baserunners in its half of the sixth to score what proved to be the deciding run. Nick Daley drew a one-ouyt walk and was moving on the pitch to the next batter Alex Murrieta. Murrieta lined a single to right centerfield. The ball was bobbled for a bit and with Daley on the move he scored all the way from first to make it 5-2.

Karhoff, who relieved Suddreth in the sixth, surrendered a leadoff single in the seventh to Adam Stebbins. With one out, Casey Hershey, who was 2-for-2 coming off the bench for injured Sam Berry, lifted a two-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole to cut Mesquite's lead to 5-4. Karhoff shook off  the homer and got the final two outs. He fanned .400-hitting cleanup hitter Jake Stobart after falling behind 3-0 in the count. AJ Karim bounced out to short to end the game. Berry was hit by a pitch in the third and left with a bloody nose, possibly a broken nose, according to Red Mountain coach Ross Pagel.

"This is a game we could have, should have won," Pagel said. "We're giving games away with little things. A couple of errors hurt us, but we couldn't get down a bunt when we needed to. I think the last five times we've tried to bunt guys over we haven't done it....

"I thought our pitching was good enough today. It kept us in. We didn't make things happen we had the chance."

Webster drove in two runs fo Mesquite with a single in the third inning and Carson Burton drove in a run in the first with a single. Stobart's only hit of the game for Red Mountain came in the third and gave the Mountain Lions a brief 2-1 lead.