When Mia Trejo stepped up to the plate Thursday night, with Tucson High’s softball team trailing Canyon del Oro by one, she wasn’t thinking about hitting a home run.
But, before she knew it, the junior pitcher and cleanup hitter was being mobbed on her way back to the dugout.
Trejo hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the seventh and then finished off the top-seeded Dorados in the bottom frame to power the No. 8 Badgers to a wild-and-crazy 10-9 win in the third round of the Division II state tournament.
“I wasn’t throwing how I usually throw; that’s was not me at all,” said Trejo, who was sick on Wednesday but stuck out seven for the complete-game win. “Without all 18 other girls, honestly I don’t think we would have won because I was just letting runs in.
“I’m just so excited to keep moving on to experience it with all of these girls because, without this young group of girls, I don’t think we’d have the energy that we have.”
Tucson High moves on to play fourth-seeded Glendale Cactus on Tuesday, with a chance to pull within one win of its first championship appearance since 1990. CDO, meanwhile, had its 16-game winning streak snapped and drops into the loser’s bracket, where it will face No. 5 Phoenix Arcadia on Saturday in a win-or-go-home game.
“We just came up short one run but we’re going to come back and go to (the championship game), that’s our goal,” said CDO sophomore left fielder Ellessa Bonstrom. “I think if we fight like that every game, we will be successful.”
Thursday’s game at Cherry Field was wild to say the least. It featured 10 extra-base hits – including four home runs – and six lead changes over the final five frames.
“It was a roller coaster,” Tucson High catcher Arriana Santa Maria said. “We were down, we were up but, in the end, we all came together as a team and we decided we wanted this more.”
Santa Maria tied the game at 2-2 on an RBI single in the top of the third inning. But CDO answered right back in its next at-bat to go ahead 3-2.
That was just the beginning of the drama.
Tucson erupted for four runs in the top of the fourth to go ahead 6-3. With the help of two walks, an RBI hit-by-pitch and a run-scoring error, the Badgers had six straight batters reach base at one point, before a groundout to end the inning.
CDO quickly responded with a four-run inning of its own, to go ahead 7-6. The Dorados regained the lead on a pinch-hit, three-run double by Halle Morris.
Tucson High left fielder hitter Vanezza Caldera tripped on the play and let the ball get past her but she made up for it in her next at-bat when she hit a towering two-run homer to left field, putting the Badgers ahead 8-7.
“I was worried about getting those runs back,” Caldera said. “That's a game that was played with heart. I feel like this is the year this team could make it to the finals.”
The lead for Tucson didn’t last long as Bonstrom put CDO right back on top with a two-run shot to center in the bottom of the frame. It put the Dorados up 9-8 and seemed like it may have been the final blow before Trejo sparked the Badgers back to life in the seventh.
After a pop out to start the inning, senior second baseman Romy Sandoval fought her way to a full-count single to put the tying run on base. Then Trejo came up and put Tucson ahead with a line-drive shot over the centerfield fence.
“I have this little saying, ‘If you don’t think, you do. And if you do think, you don’t do,’” Trejo said. “With me, just over thinking anything like that, especially in one of these huge situations, it doesn’t work out.
“I just try to stay calm and it works out usually.”
POSTSEASON GLANCE
SOFTBALL
DIVISION II STATE TOURNAMENT
(24 teams, double-elimination after second round. Winner-take-all championship game)
First-round results
No. 12 Cienega 7, No. 21 Mesa Skyline 3
No. 16 Desert View 3, No. 17 Flagstaff 0
No. 18 Sunnyside 9, No. 15 Buckeye Verrado 5
No. 19 Sierra Vista Buena 12, No. 14 Gilbert Mesquite 7
Second-round results
No. 1 Canyon del Oro 4, No. 16 Desert View 1
No. 2 Ironwood Ridge 11, No. 18 Sunnyside 1 (5 innings)
No. 3 Sahuaro 6, No. 19 Sierra Vista Buena 3
No. 6 Salpointe Catholic 10, No. 22 Cave Creek Cactus Shadows 0 (5 innings
No. 8 Tucson 17, No. 9 Goodyear Desert Edge 7 (5 innings)
No. 5 Phoenix Arcadia 5, No. 12 Cienega 3
Thursday’s third-round results (double elimination)
No. 8 Tucson 10, No. 1 Canyon del Oro 9
No. 2 Ironwood Ridge 10, No. 23 Casa Grande 0 (5 innings)
No. 3 Sahuaro 1, No. 6 Salpointe Catholic 0 (12 innings)
Loser bracket, first round (single elimination) – Saturday
No. 5 Phoenix Arcadia vs. No. 1 Canyon del Oro at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix
No. 23 Casa Grande vs. No. 6 Salpointe Catholic at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix
Winner quarterfinals (double elimination) – Tuesday
No. 3 Sahuaro vs. No. 2 Ironwood Ridge at TBD, 6:30 p.m.
No. 8 Tucson vs. No. 4 Glendale Cactus at Rose Mofford Sports Complex, 6:30 p.m.
DIVISION III STATE TOURNAMENT
(32 teams, single elimination)
First-round results
No. 7 Catalina Foothills 5, No. 26 Lake Havasu 4
No. 10 Douglas 15, No. 23 Lee Williams 0
No. 16 Empire 13, No. 17 Glendale Apollo 2
No. 11 Phoenix Bourgade Catholic 3, No. 22 Sahuarita 1
No. 19 Rio Rico 9, No. 14 Avondale Agua Fria 1
No. 24 Nogales 6, No. 9 Goodyear Estrella Foothills 0
Thursday’s second-round results
No. 7 Catalina Foothills 8, No. 10 Douglas 1
No. 1 Yuma Cibola, No. 16 Empire 7
No. 19 Rio Rico 5, No. 3 Mohave Valley River Valley 1
No. 24 Nogales 19, No. 8 Show Low 2 (5 innings)
Quarterfinals – Friday at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix
No. 7 Catalina Foothills vs. No. 2 San Tan Valley Poston Butte, 7 p.m.
No. 24 Nogales vs. No. 1 Yuma Cibola, 7 p.m.
DIVISION IV STATE TOURNAMENT
(24 teams, single elimination)
First-round results
No. 19 Pusch Ridge Christian 16, No. 14 Willcox 14
No. 20 Tanque Verde 13, No. 13 Globe 0
No. 24 Amphitheater 18, No. 9 Florence 1
Second-round results
No. 1 Benson 12, No. 16 Phoenix Country Day 0 (5 innings)
No. 3 San Manuel 9, No. 19 Pusch Ridge Christian 8
No 5 Pueblo 14, No. 21 Thatcher 4
No. 4 Yuma Catholic 13, No. 20 Tanque Verde 11
No. 24 Amphitheater 2, No. 8 Chandler Prep 0
Quarterfinals – Friday at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix
No. 24 Amphitheater vs. No. 1 Benson, 5 p.m.
No. 11 Morenci vs. No. 3 San Manuel, 5 p.m.
No. 4 Yuma Catholic vs. No. 5 Pueblo, 5 p.m.
DIVISION V STATE TOURNAMENT
(24 teams, single elimination)
First-round results
No. 13 San Miguel 13, No. 20 Williams 0 (5 innings)
No. 12 Mayer 13, No. 21 Bisbee 12
No. 9 San Carlos 8, No. 24 Academy of Tucson 7
No. 11 St. David 14, No. 22 Mogollon 10
Second-round results
No. 4 Elfrida Valley Union 17, No. 13 San Miguel 6 (5 innings)
No. 6 Joseph City 16, No. 11 St. David 14
Quarterfinals – Friday at Rose Mofford Sports Complex in Phoenix
No. 5 Winkelman Hayden vs. No. 4 Elfrida Valley Union, 5 p.m.
