It would have been tough to blame any fans of Sedona Red Rock High School’s baseball team if they left the Scorpions game against Glendale Prep Academy on Wednesday, March 4 a few innings early — but they would have missed a great ending.
Sedona went down big in the early innings, trailing 10-2 after the top of the third. But SRRHS slowly began to chip away at the lead and finally caught [and surpassed] the Griffins by scoring eight runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Scorpions held on from there and came away with a 15-13 win.
“We can get down on ourselves all we want when we have bad first and second innings,” junior catcher Matt Capozzi said. “But regardless, our team’s going to bounce back in any way possible. We have the people to do it. We have the power to do it. When the work needs to be done, we go do the work.”
Sedona began to chip away in its half of the third inning, scoring three runs to cut the deficit to 10-5. Still, as the game got into its later innings, things looked bleak. The Scorpions trailed 13-5 heading into their half of the fifth inning. After a nice three-run inning, the Scorpions were down 13-8 going into the bottom of the sixth.
Much of the late game explosion can be attributed to the running game. Sedona stole a total of 11 bases against Glendale Prep — 10 of which came in either the fifth or sixth innings.
“It’s better to have a guy on third than a guy on first,” junior first baseman Joey Johnson said. “That’s why we steal. It’s important to be aggressive.”
The Scorpions also benefited from base-running mistakes by the Griffins. Glendale Prep catcher Jonah Burks drilled a ball over the left-center field wall for a home run to lead off the inning to open up a 13-5 lead. The Griffins appeared poised to open up a bigger lead when both of the next two hitters reached base. Sedona, though, retired both of them on the bases, with one getting out trying to score on a passed ball at home and another caught stealing second.
Junior southpaw James Alagna finished 2.2 innings of relief when he retired the next batter to end the threat, opening the door for his team to come back.
“Obviously, we had to keep our composure,”SRRHS coach Pedro Ortega said. “We play seven innings. Today was a good learning experience for us to move forward. Once we clicked we went to the bullpen, which was the plan going in — though not to give up that many runs — and the middle reliever did a great job.”
Sedona had a number of players contribute to the win. While he didn’t have a great outing on the mound, junior pitcher Nate Ross recorded three hits and drove in two runs. Capozzi had three hits, four RBI and stole five bases. Alagna added two hits and a steal. Johnson reached safely three times and stole a base. Senior third baseman Cooper Barber and sophomore left fielder Israel McGrath each notched an extra-base hit, hitting a double and triple, respectively.
Another star of the game was junior Jaiah Grondin, who recorded two hits, an RBI and stole two bases. Defensively, he played shortstop for the first five innings but thrived as the pitcher in the final two frames. Grondin pitched two perfect innings, striking out two of the six hitters he faced. In the top of the seventh, nursing a two-run lead against an offense that had hit all day, he retired the top of the Glendale Prep lineup in order to preserve the win for his team and himself.
“It felt really good,” Grondin said. “Guppy [Capozzi] puts it up and I’m trying to hit those spots. I feel really good and I know my defense has got my back.”
The Scorpions were back on the diamond on Thursday, March 5, taking on Joseph City. Following an extended hiatus for spring break, Sedona will be back in action on Tuesday, March 17 for a road game against American Leadership Academy-Ironwood on Tuesday, March 17 at 3:45 p.m. The Scorpions’ next home game will be on Saturday, March 21 when they host Winslow at 12 p.m.
