Steve Stockmar

West Valley Preps

GILBERT – Down the road, the Willow Canyon baseball program may look at a playoff loss as a huge win.

The Wildcats, seeded No. 18 in the 5A postseason bracket, which opened with play-in games around the state on Wednesday, lost big to the 15-seed Williams Field Black Hawks, 14-4, in only five innings in Gilbert. The loss ended Willow Canyon’s season just shy of the 16-team state tournament, which gets under way April 28.

While the home team dugout was celebrating its 16-hit attack and a sparkling outing by starting pitcher Talon Brown, not to mention planning ahead for its next playoff round, the Wildcats held a lengthy on-field meeting after the final out.

There were lots of tears and hugs, seniors walking alone in the outfield taking in their final prep game, and a sense of pride in clinching the program’s first postseason berth in almost a decade.

“We lost our first playoff game, but you know what? It’s bigger than just the game, what we’re building here. It’s about a family. The new culture is about family,” first-year Willow Canyon head coach Orlando Rodriguez said. “What they did the whole year, each one of these kids, I cannot ask for anything more. These boys gave me all they got.”

The Wildcats took an early lead in Wednesday afternoon’s play-in game, part of a bracket that pairs up conference teams ranked Nos. 9 through 24 to qualify for the 16-team state dance. Willow Canyon had won 11 consecutive games before closing the regular season with two straight losses, and was making its first postseason appearance since 2009.

Leadoff man Nolan Lovett drew a walk to open the game, and advanced to second on an infield hit from starting pitcher Connor Still. One batter later, a perfect sacrifice bunt from Dan Zapata moved the runners over, and Lovett’s heads-up base running saw him come all the way around to score from second when he saw no one covering home plate for Williams Field.

It would be all Williams Field after that.

The Black Hawks, playing out of the San Tan Region, scored in every inning of the game, and roped back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead.

Willow Canyon battled back by the third inning to tie the game at 3-3 on the strength of a two-run home run to right field off the sweet left-handed swing of Zapata, who connected on an 0-2 pitch with two outs.

Some errors crept in for the Wildcats, though. Two throwing miscues on the same play allowed Williams to re-claim the lead, and the Black Hawks were just getting started. Eventually, Williams Field would bat around the order in the fourth inning, scoring five runs on four hits – all with two outs – as six straight batters reached safely at one point.

A comfortable 10-3 lead swelled to a run-ruling 14-4 final when the Black Hawks plated four more runs in the bottom of the fifth, including a two-run double by third baseman Nick Cupp, who would go 3-for-4 on the day with three runs scored and three RBIs.

Nine runs over the fourth and fifth innings proved too much for WC to overcome.

“I don’t know,” an emotional Zapata, just a sophomore, said while searching for the right words to examine how the game got away. “I feel like we didn’t want it this time. But next year we’ll be ready for sure. We’ll come back. Our seniors, our best players, set the foundation for us.”

Lovett scored twice, and Trevor Holtorf singled and scored from the 9-hole for the Wildcats.

But Brown was dealing on the mound for Williams Field. He threw 4.1 innings and allowed three runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout. The Black Hawks defense also turned two double plays on the day.

Brown was relieved, said Williams Field head coach Randy Clifford, strictly for pitch-count reasons. Finishing with fewer than 60 pitches leaves Brown eligible to appear in Williams’ state tournament opener this Saturday, although he won’t start.

“We’ve gotten progressively better as the season’s gone along,” Clifford said. “We’ve gotten a couple people back, especially in that 4-5 hole, and they haven’t been with us other than the last couple weeks. They’re just a big difference.”

Wednesday’s win was the fifth straight for Williams Field – its longest streak of the season, which comes on the heels of a five-game losing streak.

They know, however, that one game can end a playoff run this time of year.

“The season stops really quick. The train keeps going and then all of a sudden it stops,” said Clifford, who is in his third year at Williams Field after spending 15 seasons as head coach of Prescott Valley Bradshaw Mountain where his varsity program was a 10-time state qualifier. “You don’t want that. So we get another opportunity.”

Meanwhile, work starts anew for Willow Canyon.

With the boost of a successful season that ended with a 12-7 overall record, the Wildcats will open their summer program June 5.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve got some big shoes to fill. We got here, now next year is about getting that first win in the playoffs.”

Willow Canyon's Mitchell Ortega flies out to center against Dysart on Friday, March 9, 2018 at Dysart High School in Surprise. [Jacob Stanek/West Valley Preps][/caption]