Mariah Gallegos
ASU Student Journalist

Mesquite Baseball defeats Paradise Valley 12-2

March 20, 2018 by Mariah Gallegos, Arizona State University


The Mesquite Wildcats defeated the Paradise Valley Trojans 12-2 Tuesday afternoon at Mesquite High School.

The game ended after the fifth inning due to the 10-run rule.

The Trojans started the game having trouble adjusting to senior pitcher Hunter Holland. The Wildcats came out  swinging and ended the first inning with a 4-0 lead.

“We started off easy and then the second inning I kind of lost it,” said Hunter Holland, “I couldn’t control my fastball but the rest of the game I focused up and pulled through.”

At the start of the second inning Trojans took advantage of Holland’s pitches and started rallying. Senior Aiden Beamon started with a walk and Parker Wilson followed with a hit just between center and right advancing Beamon to second and him to first.

The next batter, Trojans senior Gabe Overton, was walked, the bases were now loaded and the Wildcats catcher, Daniel Johnson, took a timeout to speak with Holland.

“He told me to slow it down and you know what you can do so focus,” said Holland.

The Trojans Josh Price singled to center to bring in two runs.

Shortly after the hit, Holland closed out the top of the second inning.

“The first inning was good but second inning he kind of got us in trouble and got a little complacent, wasn’t really focused,” said Coach Jeff Holland. “He settled down and did what he had to do; fly balls, ground balls to get us out of the inning and we took care of him.”

The Wildcats had a quick second inning, with the first three batters getting out.

The Trojans remained scoreless after their two-run second inning, while the Wildcats continued to hit and add to the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth.

Karch Doyle, tne Trojans pitcher, threw a ball and two eager Wildcats came in after an errant throw by the catcher.

The start of the fifth inning had the Wildcats in the lead 9-2.

Trojans coach Greg Davis highlighted what a good baseball program Mesquite has. He enjoyed watching the boys play and learn. Davis is the varsity football coach at PV and this is his first year since 2001 coaching the varsity baseball team.

“Seeing where we're at as far as the team goes and rewinding the things that we need to work on was a big key for me,” said Davis.

The Trojans fought throughout the game and into the last inning, but the Wildcats kept their momentum.

“This team is hungry,” said Jeff Holland. “They come to work every day and they like being out here and around each other so that’s a good mindset.”

The fifth inning was short for the Trojans with a quick three outs.

“Every game we will learn something and in this situation we need to give ourselves a chance to practice things we made errors on: mentally and the little things,” said Davis, “not only what goes down in the scorebook but backing each other up.”

The Wildcats' Willie Cano hit an RBI double and gave the team an 11-2 lead.

Shortly after the Trojans changed pitchers to senior Kyle Krautstrunk, Mesquite's TJ Clarkson drove in the final ru in a 12-2 victory.

“Today’s game I think we made good at bats, played good defense, we still have to work on a lot of things before the season's over but each game we want to keep climbing and keep getting better,” said Jeff Holland.