Longtime local sports journalist Brad Allis provided this report of Flowing Wells’ game with Continental Ranch/Thornydale in the District 5 Juniors baseball championship. Allis is the host of the Wildcat Sports Report podcast and is the Senior Communications Specialist for Pima Association of Governments. His son Tyler plays for Flowing Wells. Brad has been the president of the Flowing Wells-Amphi Little League Board.
The Flowing Wells Juniors rallied to beat Continental Ranch/Thornydale 13-9 on Tuesday night at Curtis Park and are now just one win away from their second consecutive District 5 Junior Baseball championship.
The two teams play again on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. at Curtis Park for the championship. The winner advances to the state tournament that starts July 5 at Payson.
Six players return from Flowing Wells’ team last year.
Trailing 8-4 with just three outs to play, Flowing Wells plated four runs in the top of the seventh.
Matthew Trujillo led off the inning with a double and Dante Tovar hit a line drive to left that cleared the fence for a two-run home run.
“As long as we have outs, we have life,” said Flowing Wells manager Gilbert Tovar before the seventh inning rally.
Isaiah Sanchez and Jaiden Goldsmith had back-to-back singles and Omar Rojas reached on an error to load the bases. Tyler Allis singled to center, scoring Sanchez and Goldsmith to tie the game.
Cruz Marcial and Trujillo teamed to keep Continental Ranch off the board and send the game to extra innings.
Max Toyos began the inning at second base as per Little League extra-inning rules and advanced to third on a perfect push bunt by Angel Sosa. Marcial was then hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Two batters later, Toyos and Sosa scored on separate wild pitches. Tovar doubled in two runs and came home to score on a Sanchez sacrifice fly.
Continental Ranch plated one run in the bottom of the eighth but the game ended on a double play.
Tovar finished with three hits, five RBIs and scored three times.
It was a pitcher’s duel early on between Flowing Wells’ Carlos Gallego and Continental Ranch’s Daniel Hedgepeth.
Flowing Wells scratched out single runs in the first and second innings, but CR answered when Steven Torrain hit a solo shot over the left field fence.
Hedgepeth left the game with an 8-4 lead when he reached his pitch limit. He helped his cause with a three-run double to push the lead to four.
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