O'Connor baseball stays alive in Mesa, sets up rematch with Hamilton

By Richard Smith
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MESA - O’Connor’s pitching staff and defense were determined for this 6A playoff game against Chandler Hamilton to be different, and it was.

The Eagles lost a 7-1 lead May 9 as the Huskies bashed their way to an 11-7 win. During the May 15 rematch at HoHoKam Stadium in Mesa senior starter Matthew Del Carlo pitched five shutout innings and finished the sixth limiting Hamilton to one run.

Senior reliever Gio Boncore-Montoya came on for a save opportunity and walked his first batter in four pitches, recovered to get two quick outs, then hit the next batter. Huskies leadoff hitter Cory Wuttke started off 3-0, but Boncore-Montoya threw two strikes, then induced a ground ball out to preserve the 2-1 victory.

“I think it’s more just believing in yourself. Knowing that you have a defense behind you that can make any play, no matter where they hit the ball to and you have a dugout that’s cheering you no matter what, then it comes to yourself. You just breathe, calm down and control the game,” Boncore-Montoya said.

So No. 10 O’Connor (26-9) and No. 3 Hamilton (20-10) 1 square off for a third time at 6 p.m. Saturday, once again at HoHoKam, 1235 N. Center St., Mesa.

Along with Del Carlo, the Eagles will be without senior ace Tommy Pascanu, who threw 105 pitches in Tuesday’s 12-3 win at Queen Creek Casteel. Coach Jeff Baumgartner said he is confident in his arms.

“We’ve had four or five guys that have all had starts for us, so they can give us a little bit of length. I think we’ll be okay.  Quinn Sullivan already won a playoff game for us against Mountain View, so we could run him out there and have him give us four of five inninhgs,” Baumgartner said.

Both of O’Connor’s runs and most of their scoring threats Friday came from the first inning.

Senior Brent Sollars led off with a single, then got to third on a hit and run with junior Mikey Gyde. Pascanu drove in Sollars on a single to center.

Junior Clayton Sheets walked to load the bases. Sophomore Chase Waterbury’s sacrifice fly

“These guys have been jumping off quick these last five or six games. They’ve been ready to fight right away and executing right away. We had a good hit-and-run in that first inning. That kind of got us going and got them on their heels a bit,” Baumgartner said.

And that was it for a few innings.

Junior outfielder Gavin Hamilton hit a one-out single for the Huskies in the fifth. Kai Hampton walked with two out. Del Carlo shut the door with a strikeout.

“It helps a ton. Pitching with a lead is huge. But you’ve always got to pitch like it’s a 0-0 ball game,” Del Carlo said.

Wuttke and senior Ben Ball started the bottom of the sixth with base hits.

Sheets fielded the next ground ball, stepped on third and completed the 5-3 double play by throwing a dart to first base.

“It’s huge to have a defense you can trust,” Del Carlo said.

Gavin Hamilton got his team on the board, dropping a bloop RBI single to shallow center field.

Once again Del Carlo responded with a strikeout to cut the rally short.

“I think that was one of the best games he’s thrown this year, the length of it. To get through the sixth inning was huge for us,” Baumgartner said.

Boncore-Montoya  spent last summer and fall transforming himself into a pitcher. With third base open and a 3-2 count, Boncore-Montoya he threw a hammer curveball

Both of Friday’s pitchers said this team has an upbeat, supportive chemistry that translates to the field.

“We’ve all played with each other since we were young, and we always remember it’s just another game. It helps keep the pressure off of you a little bit,” Boncore-Montoya said.

Richard Smith
Senior News Editor | Glendale & West Valley Preps

rsmith@iniusa.org

Richard Smith has been with Independent Newsmedia since 2016, and worked at a Sun City-based news outfit covering the Northwest Valley for 22 consecutive years.

An NAU alum and lifelong Arizona resident, Richard began as a copy editor and page designer at Surprise Today and the Daily News-Sun, then rekindled his love of sports writing by taking the reins on West Valley Preps in 2008.

For most of the mid-2010s he was the Surprise editor and West Valley Preps reporter. Now he’s the West Valley Preps Editor and Surprise Associate Editor.

As COVID restrictions slowly lift, Richard is cautiously optimistic he will visit book stores, football fields and gyms again this fall.