Amy Baray-Rocha, a former Arizona softball standout who coached Salpointe Catholic to three consecutive state championships, has resigned from her position, the school confirmed.
Attempts to reach Baray-Rocha were unsuccessful.
The Lancers are proceeding presently with former Lancer standout Tricia (Garigan) Sztan who was hired to lead the junior varsity squad in 2020. Sztan won a state championship with Salpointe playing for Stacy (Hill) Iveson in 1993 as a junior. The season does not start until March 3 (a rematch of the 4A state title game with Vista Grande in Casa Grande).
Baray-Rocha, who played for Salpointe’s state title teams in 1993 and 1996, coached the Lancers for seven seasons and led the program to 4A state titles in 2018, 2019 and 2021 (the end of the 2020 season was canceled because of COVID-19 protocol).
The Lancers finished 24-0 last season, outscoring opponents 279-24.
The former Arizona catcher who played for Mike Candrea joined the likes of Southern Arizona legends Kelly Fowler at Canyon del Oro, Armando Quiroz at Flowing Wells, Chris Fanning of Sahuarita and Amy Swiderski at Canyon del Oro with three state titles.
Legendary Sahuaro coach Billy Lopez finished his career with six championships, San Manuel’s Sheila Baize had five and current Cienega coach Eric Tatham has four.
Only Baize and Baray-Rocha coached undefeated teams out of that group.
“They’re special. They never took a moment for granted,” Baray-Rocha said after Salpointe defeated Vista Grande 5-4 last May in the state title game at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Baray-Rocha was 165-38-1 in her seven seasons at Salpointe.
Salpointe’s state titles with the coach and record:
- 2021 – Amy Baray-Rocha (24-0)
- 2019 – Amy Baray-Rocha (25-4)
- 2018 – Amy Baray-Rocha (32-4-1)
- 1996 – Phil Gruensfelder (30-4)
- 1993 – Stacy Hill Iveson (30-2)
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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