D-I baseball: Centennial, Corona del Sol advance to elite 8

May 5, 2015 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


It takes a lot of winning for teams that don't draw a first-round bye in the Division I baseball tournament. Centennial and Corona del Sol haven't minded the extra play so far.

No. 10 Centennial posted its second shutout of the postseason on Tuesday and eliminated No. 7 Perry, 4-0, in a second round, single-elimination game at Perry High. Meanwhile, No. 9 Corona del Sol took to the road to No. 8 Mesa Mountain View and ended the Toros' season with a 7-4 victory.

The other seeds in the top 10 prevailed on Tuesday-- Hamilton, Mesquite, Liberty, Gilbert, Horizon and Valley Vista. Along with Centennial and Corona, those eight schools begin the double-elimination portion of the tournament on Thursday with doubleheaders at Tempe Diablo Stadium and Maryvale Park.

Here's a wrap-up of Tuesday's games:

CENTENNIAL 4, PERRY 0: Casey Brown pitched a one-hitter and Nick Espinoza drove in two runs with a double and triple to pace the Coyotes past the Pumas.Brown, who followed up Chaz Montoya;s four-hitter last Saturday, had a no-hitter until two out in the sixth when Perry' Jeremy McCuin doubled. Brown walked three and fanned eight.Centennial scored twice in the second and twice in the sixth to beat Perry ace Tyler Watson. Perry had an uncharacteristically tough day in the field as it committed four errors. Centennial plays Mesquite on next on Thursday. 

CORONA DEL SOL 7, MESA MTN. VIEW 4: Corona rapped out 12 hits and built a 7-0 lead and hung on to beat Mountain View. Sophomore Quinn Flanagan stymied Mountain View on one hit and no runs through five innings. The Aztecs scored runs in the second, third, fiffth and sixth with Connor McCord blasting a two-run homer in the third and Matt Asta and Eric Schwalbe collected three hits apiec. Flanagan helped himself with a pair of RBI singles. Flanagan went the distance, giving up four runs over the final two innings. He surrendered solo homers in the seventh to Casey Lederman and Canon Anderson.

HAMILTON 7, DESERT VISTA 2: Zane Strand pitched six strong innings and Jayson Reynold drove in a pair of runs to pace the Huskies past the Thunder at Hamilton. Strand pitched one-hit ball through six innings and had a 7-0 lead by that time. He faltered a bit in the seventh with Jake Wong coming on to get the final two outs. Dylan Enwiller, Logan Boyer and Reynolds all had two hits for Hamilton. Hamilton takes on Corona del Sol on Thursday at Diablo Stadium.

MESQUITE 6, CHANDLER 0: Cobe Karhoff pitched a three-hitter and Nick Daley had three hits and three RBI to pace the Wildcats past the Wolves at Mesquite. Karhoff was quite efficient. He allowed one walk and faned two and let the defense do the rest. Daley homered among his three hits and Noah Cordova also homered for Mesquite.

MOUNTAIN RIDGE 3, HORIZON 2: Sawyer Tresse doubled home the tying run and scored the winning run on Mitchel Sullivan's single in a seventh- inning rally that lifted the Mountain Lions past the Huskies at Horizon. Mountain Ridge's Justin Revels outdueled Horizon's Chris Isbell. Revels allowed five hits and struck out 11.

GILBERT 3, CHAPARRAL 2: Zak Thomas solo homer in the fourth inning proved to be the game-winner as the Tigers edged the Firebirds at Gilbert. Chase Merriman went the distance and struck out 10 to pick up the victory and advance Gilbert to a Thursday game at Diablo Stadium vs. Mountain Ridge.