Campillo comes up big at the plate, leads Team Teal to All-Star victory

Robby Campillo stepped into the batter’s box Wednesday night at Kino Stadium to get a different perspective of Branden Hance, his old batterymate on Salpointe Catholic’s baseball team.

But even though Hance got the strikeout against his former catcher, it was Campillo who was celebrating in the end.

The New Mexico-bound Campillo came up with some of the biggest hits of the night to help power Team Teal to a 13-6 win against Team Copper in the Division II seniors game of the Garb Athletics/OC Sports Southern Arizona All-Star series.

“Words can’t describe how fun it was,” Campillo said. “It was good to come out here with all my friends. I had a lot of friends on the other team but we just wanted to win.”

Campillo tied the game with an RBI ground-rule double in the fourth inning and then hit a two-run triple four innings later, when Teal pulled away for good.

But, what about that strikeout in the top of the first?

“He’s a good pitcher; I’m used to just catching him,” Campillo said with a laugh. “I thought he was going off-speed on the last one but he threw a fastball and blew it right by me.”

Ironwood Ridge’s Nick Estrella, who finished 4 for 5, took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to finish off the win. Estrella brought in Sabino’s Maximillian Christoff for Teal’s first run of the night and scored the tying run on Campillo’s ground-rule double.

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Estrella singled and scored again in his next at-bat, putting Teal ahead 3-2 before Rincon University’s Alfredo Villa answered with a two-run double to give Copper a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

But the series of lead changes ended after Teal went up 5-4 in the seventh and then rattled off eight runs in an eighth inning that featured eight hits, including a two-run triple by Tucson High’s Martin Garcia.

“Just being out here is the best part,” said Estrella, who is signed with Azusa Pacific. “It’s not about how I do, it’s about having fun. It’s our last time together with all these guys.”

The game marked a farewell for the 32 seniors playing, in addition to Cienega coach Tony Gabusi, who retired after the season. The longtime skipper managed Team Copper for the night while former Ironwood Ridge coach Dennis Toia served as an assistant for him. Toia played for Gabusi in his high school days at Amphitheater.

“I had my turn and it’s time to turn the page,” said Gabusi, who coached Catalina to the Class 4A-II championship in 2011. “Maybe there will be something else down the line, we’ll see what happens. I’m not going away.”

Gabusi helped start up the Southern Arizona All-Star series last year, along with Kino Baseball League. Play continues Thursday and Friday at Catalina Foothills High School, with two futures games, both scheduled for 7 p.m.

“It’s a pleasure, it’s an honor to do the All-Star games,” Gabusi said. “You might see these kids on TV some day, you never know.

“It’s been a good experience with all these kids and it’s good for Tucson; we need to have our own stuff sometimes and this is a good place to do it.”