Smash Bros fall to Tribe of Gad in D-backs’ 18U title game

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It’s been a long time coming for the Smash Bros baseball squad.

The Kirtland-based team has played in the D-Backs Inter-Tribal Baseball Tournament for seven-plus years, and it finally made the championship game of said tournament.

“We’ve been bringing our core group to this tournament every year,” Smash Bros coach Darryl Garcia said. “We made the bracket as a 12U group, but that was a long time ago.

“Every year we kept falling short,” he added. “We have nine seniors right now and they’ve been playing since they were nine years old in this tournament.”

The all-Navajo team was composed of mostly Kirtland Central High players with the lone exception of Bloomfield Bobcat McKell Colbert.

The Garcia-coached squad won its pool and advanced to Friday night’s title game with a 2-1 win over the Guadalupe Chiefs in one semifinal.

In the championship game, the Smash Bros opened up a 2-0 cushion before falling to the Tribe of Gad 18U baseball team by an 8-3 count. For the Henryetta, Oklahoma, based team, the championship at the D-Backs tournament represented its second in three years.

“We committed some errors that brought us down, but they’re a good team,” Garcia said of the TOG team. “They played the small ball, which is excellent on their part because it caught our guys off-guard.

“We tried to regroup, but we dug ourselves in a big hole,” he added.

TOG, which was coached by San Carlos (Arizona) High coach Terry Antonio, rallied in the third and fourth innings. The Oklahoma team erased a 3-1 deficit by plating four and three runs, respectively, in those pivotal frames for a final score of 8-3.

“I thought we stayed patient at the plate,” Antonio said. “We knew that we were going to get some chances later on in the game. We just had to play solid defense and that is what we talked about in between innings.

“We were gonna get our at-bats, we were gonna get our chances, so we had to play solid,” he added. “They stayed very selective, and we put some pressure on (the Smash Bros) with our base running. We scored multiple runs in the third and fourth and that was crucial for us.”

In those two innings TOG recorded six of their eight hits to spur both rallies. In the top of the third the Antonio-coached team loaded the bases behind a pair of singles from leadoff hitter Ashton Davis and Bo Locust while Elijah Gardner reached on a Smash Bros error.

An RBI single from Parker Wilson scored Davis and following a bases-loaded walk TOG had tied the contest at 3-all.

A fielder’s choice from Johnny Wilson plated another run as Smash Bros starting pitcher Osai Garcia was relieved by Jharrin Tyler.

TOG earned its last run of the inning on a sacrifice bunt from Tanner Wilson for a 5-3 TOG cushion.

In the fourth TOG leadoff hitter Ashton Davis earned a walk, which was followed by a single from Gardner. Locust then hit a hard ground ball into right field for a two-run single before the Smash Bros recorded its first out.

Locust, who went 2-for-3, gave TOG an 8-3 cushion courtesy of a fielder’s choice groundout from teammate Johnny Wilson.

“Tanner and Johnny pushed in a couple of runs for us,” Antonio said. “You know, we didn’t get any big hits, but we put together some singles and double hits.”

Antonio, who inherited a solid club, has coached TOG for the past three years. The team is composed of players from the southeastern part of Oklahoma.

“We got kids from the Tulsa and Henryetta areas,” Antonio said. “They all come from some of the smaller schools in Oklahoma.”

The San Carlos native developed connections with TOG coach Lucas when he sent his girls basketball team to Oklahoma 15 years ago. The two stayed in touch over the years and when Antonio’s son, Michael, was old enough he played for Lucas’ squad, which was then known as the Dog Soldiers 4 Jesus Christ team.

“They did a lot for my son, and this is my way of giving back,” Antonio said of coaching the team.

Antonio credited players like Bo Locust, Elijah Wilson, Tanner Wilson and Johnny Wilson for leading the team with Johnny being tabbed the tournament’s MVP.

“We played very good as a team,” Johnny Wilson said. “Honestly, we never got down as a team even when we were down. We just had to pick ourselves back up.”

In the title game Johnny Wilson played second base while Gardner pitched the entire contest. Gardner pitched four innings and gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits and fanned five.

“We have some dogs that can really pitch,” Wilson said. “The one that pitched tonight did really good. He was lights out.”

Smash Bros first baseman Jay Tsosie led the New Mexico-based team with two hits.

“Our best hitter, Jay Tsosie, didn’t come alive until the last day,” Darryl Garcia said of his pupil. “He came out and gave us some good hits.”

The Smash Bros coach also praised the play of Tyler, who pitched the team to a 6-2 win over the AZ Heat in pool play.

“Jharrin was a dog on the mound,” Garcia said. “Jharrin took care of business when we played the AZ Heat, last year’s champion. He was in the zone, and he did really good.”

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