Piñon baseball sweeps Many Farms in 2A North play

MANY FARMS, Ariz. – In a pair of much-needed 2A North Region wins, the Piñon baseball team survived an early scare from Many Farms on Friday afternoon.

The Eagles rallied from a 4-2 deficit and beat the Lobos 5-4 in last week’s opener. In the late game, Piñon opened a 5-1 advantage before winning 11-5 to complete the sweep.

“Every game that we go into, we never go in there thinking we’re gonna win,” said Piñon coach Alonzo Bert, whose team improved to 6-5 overall and 2-2 in region play. “We’re gonna fight every single time. This was actually a good game that Many Farms gave us.

“I wasn’t expecting to come in here and wiping them out,” he added. “They’re a team that you got to really watch for.”

The doubleheader sweep was much needed as Piñon is of the teams that’s on the outside looking in to make the Arizona Interscholastic Association Conference 2A Play-In Game, which is set for Apr. 30.

The teams ranked No. 9 through No. 24 will earn bids into the play-in game as the winners will advance into the 16-team state tournament.

The Eagles have an outside shot as Piñon moved up one spot to No. 28 from last week’s AIA statewide rankings on Tuesday afternoon.

“That’s what we’re aiming for this year,” Bert said. “It’s been over a decade since we made the playoffs, but I’ve got some really good pitchers and we’ve got some solid defense.

“I know these guys can do it,” he added. “It’s really up to them if they want to go to state.”

The Bert-coached team has seven games left on its schedule starting with Thursday’s home game with Greyhills. On Friday, The Eagles will travel to St. Michael.

Next week Tuesday, Piñon plays a doubleheader at Valley before hosting Hopi in a twin bill on Apr. 25. The Eagles will close out the season at 3A school Monument Valley on Apr. 28.

“It’s anybody’s game,” Bert said of the remaining games. “Hopefully, we can get more power points from these teams.”

In last Friday’s opener, the Lobos took the lead at 4-2 when freshman D’Shawn Chee nailed a hit in left field as he cleared the bases and brought in three runs.

The centerfielder, however, was tagged out as he tried to extend a double into a triple for Many Farms’ second out. Two batters later, Piñon’s starting pitcher Lukus James recorded his sixth strikeout.

The Eagles got two of those runs back in the top of fifth when James hit a two-run single that tied the contest at 4-all.

In the sixth, Many Farms had switch out pitchers as Lobo ace Mathias Yazzie reached his 105-pitch count. It took Piñon another inning to jump on Many Farms’ reliever as James got on base with a walk and he scored on a run-scoring triple from junior Joshua Manuelito.

“We’re looking for a closer,” said Many Farms coach Tullus Deschenie, who lamented on their season schedule as the Lobos played only a handful of games before April.

Many Farms had only one game scheduled in February. And in March they played a total of four games.

“It’s been an interesting season,” Deschenie said. “We’ve had opportunities to do well this season, but our challenges is we didn’t have those early season games or tournaments. We were going off what we had on our schedule, so we’re now finally playing baseball.

“We’re a BIA school, a government school, and the change in the new administration, I think, has had an impact on our opportunities with baseball.”

With that, Tullus said they lack game-time experience as he was tasked of blending four seniors with a bevy of underclassmen.

“I have 13 guys and we have some freshmen playing varsity baseball,” he said. “We don’t have a JV squad, so our team is a combination of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen. We’re working with what we have.”

Despite some of the struggles they’ve dealt with, Tullus likes the progression he’s seen from his team as Many Farms is looking to improve on its 3-9 record in next week’s doubleheaders with Hopi on Apr. 23 and Valley Apr. 24.

“We’re finally getting to where we need to be at,” he said.

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