Baseball: Basha is 6A Premier Region champ, tops Hamilton

April 20, 2018 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Red Mtn. coach Ross Pagel (far right) goes over ground rules prior to his final regular season game coaching the Mountain Lions at Mesa High (AzPreps365. photo)

Basha used an a five-RBI game from catcher Seth Beckstead to build an early lead Friday afternoon and went on to defeat Hamilton, 8-4, and claim the 6A Premier Region baseball crown at Hamilton High.

Basha finished in a tie with Chandler at 6-2 in region play and the teams split their two region meetings. The tie-breaker is better record against conference opponents and that gives the edge to Basha. Beckstead belted the grand slam in the third inning to snap a 1-1 tie. He added an RBI single later. Jake Jarvis pitched the first four-plus innings and earned the victory. Basha was No. 6 in the power rankings Friday and Hamilton was No. 8.

CHANDLER 4, BROPHY PREP 3: Pinch-hitter Will Cisneros singled home the winning run with two outs in th bottom of the seventh to give the Wolves the win over the Broncos. The win improved Chandler's chances of moving into the top 8 in the 6A power rankings and the bye from play-in games that goes with it.

Chandler was #9 in the rankings coming into play. Brophy was No. 18. The top 24 teams qualify for postseason with teams 9-24 playing a play-in game on Wednesday to be part of the 16-team state tourney field. The 16-team portion of state begins Saturday April 28. Javan Ah'quin homered for Chandler.

RED MOUNTAIN 14, MESA HIGH 1: Bobby Meza pitched a one-hitter and drove in four runs to spark the Mountain Lions past the Jackrabbits at Mesa High. The loss extremely damages Mesa's chances at postseason berth. Mesa was No. 23 coming in to play.Meza clouted a three-run homer in a four-run, first inning. Meza took a no-hitter to the fifth, but lost it on a booming leadoff double to center by Mesa's Jacob Hanna. Andrew Hayes, Randy Hustson and Ryan Campos drove in two runs each for Red Mountain.

DESERT VISTA 10, MOUNTAIN POINTE 6: The Thunder received home runs from Zach Paquette and Tommy Malley and defeated the Pride to break a three-game losing streak in a game played at Mountain Pointe. Paquette knocked in four runs and Malley a pair. Connor Murphy and Carson Tucker homered for Mountain Pointe.

MOUNTAIN VIEW 14, DOBSON 0: The Toros cemented their top seed in the 6A power rankings by blanking the Mustangs at Mountain View. Harrison Smith and Mason Krause combined for a five-inning, one hitter for the Toros. Jared Thomas was  3-3 with three RBI and a home run. David Oldroyd had two hits and two RBI and Tyler Barnes doubled and tripled and drove in a run in his two at-bats. 

CORONA DEL SOL 10, HIGHLAND 5: Matt Novis and Hunter Haas homered to pace the Aztecs past the Hawks at Corona del Sol. Novis, Haas and Cade Verdusco combined to drive in seven of Corona's 10 runs. Corona del Sol is likely to finish with the No. 2 power ranking its held recently and owned heading in to play Friday.

PERRY 6, CIBOLA 4: The Pumas capitalized on three errors to build a 5-0 lead and outlast the Raiders in Yuma at Cibola High. Colton Gates picked up the win on the mound with five-plus innings of work. Perry's play down the stretch has earned it a playoff berth an likely preserved a home game in the play-in round on Wednesday. Perry entered play on Friday at No. 15 in the power-rankings.

GILBERT 4, DESERT RIDGE 3: Bryce Ulm drove in two runs, including the game-winner with a fifth-inning double to give the Tigers the win over the Jaguars at Gilbert. Ulm also pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to notch the save and keep Gilbert's postseason hopes alive. Caden Gustafson homered for Desert Ridge, which entered play at No. 19 in the power rankings and will have to sweat out the weekend to see if it qualified for the play-in games midweek.

HORIZON 4, PINNACLE 3: Luke Francis singled in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth giving the Huskies the win over the Pioneers at Horizon. Francis was 3 for 5 Robert Liddington pitched three scoreless innings of relief to nab the win for Horizon.

SKYLINE 11, WESTWOOD 1: The Coyotes routed the Warriors to split their two-game series at HoHoKam Park and potentially hurt the Warriors' hopes at postseason play. Westwood was No. 21 in the power rankings on Friday.