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The Combs’ baseball team reached the semifinals of the 35th Annual Joe S. Padilla Tournament, which started with pool play last Wednesday and concluded with championship and consolation brackets last Saturday at Florence and Combs High Schools, respectively.
The Yotes went a perfect 3 – 0 in Pool D, defeating Globe, Morenci, and Coolidge on successive days to earn a top-seed in the championship bracket.
A 5 – 3 victory against Blue Ridge on Saturday propelled the Yotes to semifinals against Apache Junction later that day. Unfortunately, the Prospectors dealt the Yotes their first loss of the season, 11 – 2.
The challenge of playing five, six, or more games in four days is having enough pitching depth or hot hitting to advance. The Yotes simply ran out of both against Apache Junction.
The Yotes’ pitching staff was nearly unhittable during the first four games of the year, which included a season-opening 1 – 0 victory against Estrella Foothills.
Led by junior Colt Chance, who was the winning pitcher in two of those games, the pitching staff posted two shutouts and allowed only two unearned runs on nine hits with 23 strikeouts and only four walks. Opposing teams were hitting a paltry .122 against Chance, Tyler Stading, and Josh Bane, the only pitchers to make appearances up to that point.
Bane, a senior, was the winning pitcher in last Friday’s 12 – 1 victory against Coolidge after throwing a five-inning complete game where he allowed one unearned run on four hits along with three strikeouts and two walks.
The Yotes scored in each of the first four innings against the Bears, highlighted by a seven-run fourth that put the game out of reach.
Colt Chance was one of three Yotes’ hitters to have two hits in the game. Ramon Mendoza, a freshman, and junior Josh McDevitt were the other two. Chance also drove in three runs while Mendoza and McDevitt each had an RBI.
Six other Coyotes had one hit each, including Stading, who also drove in two runs.
Upcoming schedule: Mar. 11 vs. Maryvale (3:45 p.m.), Mar. 17 at Florence (6 p.m.), Mar. 19 at Miami (1 p.m.), and Mar. 23 at Tempe (4 p.m.).
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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