Catalina Foothills falls to Queen Creek Casteel 15-8 in 5A state baseball championship

TEMPE — Catalina Foothills’ quest for the program’s first-ever baseball state championship fell short Tuesday when the top-seeded Falcons fell to second-seeded Queen Creek Casteel 15-8 in the Class 5A title game at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

The Colts had 19 hits en route to their banner victory over Catalina Foothills, which finished its season 27-3-1.

“It’s great just being a part of this season,” Catalina Foothills coach Lance Robertson said. “I wasn’t here last year, so being a part of this season, I just tried to get out of the way. I told them how much we love them and care about them.

“It’s a great season. Just one game short. That’s what it is.”

Catalina Foothills (27-3-1) senior ace Ethan Bell, who had a 1.86 ERA entering Tuesday, allowed seven runs on 14 hits and couldn’t hold an early Falcons lead.

“He threw well,” Robertson said. “Sometimes you just get those seeing-eye singles, things happen and there’s a mental mistake here and there. He threw great for us all year. You can’t take anything away from him. He was good today. Just ran out of gas in the end.”

The Falcons scored five runs in the second inning. Catalina Foothills catcher Kincaid Bergthold slapped a leadoff single into left field, then three straight walks scored the first run. Then a wild pitch, a walk and a hit-by-pitch, followed by a blooper into right by shortstop and future Grand Canyon Lope Troy Sanders, scored the final four runs of the inning. Casteel junior pitcher Mason Russell, who threw a no-hitter against Nogales in the semifinals, ended his start allowing five runs and four walks. He was replaced by Nick Dale.

“We knocked out probably the best pitcher in the state, in the first couple innings,” said Catalina Foothills standout sophomore Ganon Dwyer, who, like Russell, is committed to Arizona.

With Catalina Foothills leading 5-4 in the bottom of the third inning, Dwyer blasted a two-run home run — his fourth of the season — over the right field wall to extend the advantage to 7-4.

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“It felt good,” Dwyer said. “Especially after that first at-bat when I got diced. Three straight strikes; I looked stupid. I got a pitch I could handle, and it was probably one of the hardest balls I hit. It felt good rounding those bases.”

The game turned in the fourth inning. Key hits included Kyler Anderson’s triple, UA commit Kade Thompson’s double and an RBI from another UA commit, Tyler Russell. The Colts scored eight runs in the inning to take a 12-7 lead. Bell was pulled after 3⅔ innings. The Colts had 15 hits at that point.

“We just couldn’t get out of it,” Robertson said. “Don’t take anything away from them, they were just pounding the ball that inning and finding some barrels. You let those type of great-hitting teams get a couple extra outs, they’re going to hurt you, and they got us pretty good.”

The title game was delayed just over an hour because of lightning in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Robertson thought the lighting delay “would’ve been a little bit of an advantage for us.” Once play resumed, Sanders’ deep hit to left field scored one run, but the Falcons never pulled within striking distance and Casteel tacked on three more runs after the weather delay.

“With the shock and awe of that eight-run inning, we thought, ‘OK, let our guys reset,’ because, gosh, you could feel we were a little flat,” Robertson said. “It just didn’t work out for us.”

Despite the loss, Dwyer said this year was “one of the best seasons in Foothills history.”

“I’m so happy to be a part of it as a sophomore, especially as a contributor tonight,” he said. “I hit the ball well, but there was nothing else we could’ve done.

“Casteel deserves it.”