By Richard Smith
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MESA - Centennial baseball would do whatever it took to win its elimination game Wednesday, and much was required to shut out Tucson Canyon del Oro at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.

Coyotes senior Cohen Baack drove in fellow senior William Strand in the top of the second inning , but that was it. To stay alive, senior pitcher J.T. Price needed to get a strikeout in the fifth inning after starting a batter 2-0 and having a runner go from first to third on an errant pickoff throw.

He did.

Then with a runner on and two outs  in the bottom of the sixth inning, Centennial needed Stand to run at top speed from his right field spot and catch sophomore Gatlin Gelle's seeming RBI double to deep right center. He did.

“I really did not feel like I was going to get there right away. Then I started closing in on it. And it happened to fall right in my glove. It was an amazing feeling,” Strand said.

Price completed the shutout and got the 1-0 win, with a little help from a snap double play in the top of the seventh.

Now #3 Centennial (23-9) and #2 Canyon del Oro (25-7) have split their two playoff battles. At 6 p.m. Thursday the teams play one more time at Hohokam, with the winner advancing to the 5A title game against #1 Canyon View (30-4).

College-bound aces Price and Baack both pitched complete games in the last three days. So senior Isaac Flores, who pitched a playoff win last year, will start Thursday.

“I think we have a super deep pitching staff. We just haven’t had to get to them all year. Now we’re going to see our No. 3 and No. 4 guys shine tomorrow. I think we’re in a good spot,” Centennial Coach Jon Williams said. “I think we got two guys that are certainly capable of doing tomorrow what J.T. did today.”

Locked in a pitchers duel with Dorados junior Regen Mazura, Price needed all seven of his strikeouts.

He said it all started with trusting in catcher David Daniels, and in Strand's burst of speed.

“The guys play hard behind me every single time. It’s all I can ask for. I try to do my best for them on the mound,” Price said. “I didn’t even know he caught it, I couldn’t believe it. I though he got all of it and to see Will come up with it ... no words.”

Strand said in a 6-4 loss May 8, the Coyotes didn’t play their best, but kept it close.

Wednesday, he said, the team kept its heads high and knew Price was on the mound.

“It starts with our captain J. T. Price. He doesn’t want to lose. He’s led us the whole year and he is a dawg, and I think everybody follows. If things don’t go our way we just keep going. That’s the way today was, we had to grind out a 1-0 win,” Williams 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.