TEMPE — Tucson High School’s baseball team gathered in right field at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Tuesday evening, as an approaching dust storm – a haboob, as Phoenicians call it — cast darkness nearby.
Even though some of the Badgers wept, after missing out on a chance to capture the program’s 30th state title, there was no gloom within the huddle.
Ninth-seeded Tucson loaded the bases in its final at-bat but couldn’t bring anyone across as No. 5 Phoenix Greenway held on for a 7-4 victory to win its second state championship in three years. Meanwhile, the Badgers, playing in the finals for the second straight season, missed out on a chance to win their first state crown since 1988 and first under longtime coach Oscar Romero.
Soon enough, they feel their time will come.
“It’s something special to get back here, but we were unable to do that job, and that’s going to keep us going for next year,” sophomore second baseman Jacob Federico said. “We expect to be back here next year 100 percent, and we’re going to take it all. These last two years have been a learning experience, and we’re just going to come back and finish it.”
Romero also expects to be back in the state finals next season, when the Badgers will be playing in the state’s highest classification again. They return several key players, including shortstop Alex Kelch who sat out the entire season with an injury.
“These seniors really did a great job in making that adjustment and giving us the opportunity to be here,” Romero said. “They taught those young guys that anything is possible.”
The Badgers had clawed their way to the Division II championship game by winning four straight elimination games. They knocked off defending state champion Canyon del Oro 8-2 in the quarterfinals before blowing past Ironwood Ridge in the semifinals.
“I’m just excited that we got to this point and we had the opportunity again,” Romero said. “That’s all you live for as a coach, to get to the end and see what happens.”
Senior shortstop Martin Garcia advanced on a two-out hit-by-pitch in the top of the seventh, as did senior right fielder Ricky Martinez. Then sophomore George Arias loaded the bases with a full-count walk but a pop out after that extinguished any chance of a rally.
“There was not one point in the game where I thought we should lose,” said Martinez, who carried the runner-up trophy off the field. “Of course we’d love to come out with the win but it’s a great time to be out here.”
Things got off to a sloppy start on both sides Tuesday as Tucson jumped out a 2-0 lead with the help of three Greenway errors. But a bumpy start by Arias and an error by Federico allowed the Demons to tie the game by the end of the first inning.
Greenway went ahead 3-2 in its next at-bat and then took a 5-3 lead with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, after Tucson tied the game when junior third baseman Luis Samorano scored on a passed ball in the top of the third.
Garcia came up with a two-out RBI single in the fourth to make it a one-run game but Greenway pushed its lead to three runs in the bottom of the fifth, after it looked like the Badgers had worked their way out of a bases-loaded jam.
That’s when junior catcher Jesus Macias came up with a two-out, two-run single to put Greenway ahead 7-4, as the Demons held on to win their third title in program history.
“I don’t like this feeling at all,” Arias said. “Now it just keeps adding and adding; it’s going to make me a better person overall, I know. It’s going to make me into a person that wants to achieve something that they have.”
