Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

Thus far, this Sunrise Mountain baseball team has proved unflappable.

In the opening frame of Saturday afternoon's elimination game, Mustangs ace Troy Balko allowed as many earned runs - 2 - as he had in 45 regular season innings. Down 2-0 before it came to the plate, the home team shrugged its shoulders and started running.

4A #5 seed Sunrise Mountain (25-3) stole 17 bases on its way to run-ruling the Marauders 12-2 in six innings.

"These guys don't show a lot of panic. That was the first time Troy has given up a couple of runs in the first," Gardner said. "I have never had more fun coaching. We're so relaxed. In the past I think there has been (more nerves)."

Balko settled down, striking out seven Mingus batters through the next 3 2/3 innings before Gardner decided to save him for another day.

The difficulty level ramps up considerably in the eight-team double elimination portion of the bracket this week. The Mustangs head south to face perennial contender and #4 seed Tucson Canyon del Oro at 4 p.m. Monday.

Win that, and they most likely play defending champion and top seed Nogales Wednesday. Lose and their Wednesday game is a battle to survive.

Either way, the Mustangs wanted to make sure their ace would be available to start that day.

"He locked it back in. Then we got him to 75 (pitches) and we needed to pull him because we need to have him on Wednesday," Gardner said. "In other years we looked at out bracket and looked ahead. We can't do that this year. We know we have a war on Monday and a potential war on Wednesday."

Sunrise Mountain attacked the base paths early and often, with six steals in the first inning. Senior Tyler Pruitt singled, stole second and third and scored on Balko's infield single.

Freshman Andy Moreno came in to pinch run and swiped second and third, then stole home once senior Caden Albertson took off for second. Moreno slid early and kind of bounced over the tag at the plate.

The host took the running game to the next level in the third. After taking second and third on a wild pitch - with no outs, Junior Noah Thompson drove in both with a single.

He stretched to third on senior Trevor Pruitt's single. Senior E.J. Sua stepped up and prepared for one of baseball's most rare plays.

"It's the first time we've done (a suicide squeeze play) all year. It was funny because we were in BP and 'I thought, I'm ready to put down a squeeze today.' The next think you no he gave me the sign and I knew I was going to get it down," Sua said.

The Sua-cide squeeze worked perfectly as Thompson came home to make it 5-2.

Following a scoreless fourth, the Mustangs added four in the fifth and three in the sixth to invoke the run rule. Two runners came home in the fifth on wild pitches.

Junior Caleb Thomason and sophomore Jacob Stockton added late RBIs. And Sua drove in a run in each inning to help break out of a recent slump.

"It's great. I know I'm back on the page. I knew my guys had me when I was down. And now I know I can back them up when the time comes," Sua said.

Albertson led the Mustangs with five steals. Moreno and Tyler Pruitt each had four.

The total of 17 breaks the listed state 4A record of 15, achieved twice by Phoenix Sunnyslope in 1990.

"The way our guys play aggressive baseball puts pressure on the defense so much," Gardner said. "That could be a state record. We've done that all year, that's not any different. Tyler Pruitt is our spark. He's such a good base runner, so good at reading things."