It’s been six years since Holbrook’s baseball team has won a first round state tournament baseball game, dating back to the 2012 season when they went into the third round with two wins before losing to Estrella Foothills in the quarterfinal round.
With a senior laden team, Roadrunner fans were hoping this would be the year they would advance past the opening round of the 3A State Tournament. Through the second inning their chances looked quite good as they were leading 11th seeded Payson 5-1 after scoring five runs in the bottom of the second.
Payson grabbed the early lead with a single run in the top of the first. Frankie Ulibarri started things off for sixth seeded Holbrook in the second with a towering two run blast over the left field fence. That bomb sparked Holbrook and rattled Payson’s ace hurler Kevin Cerna along with the rest of the Longhorn defense. Payson went on to commit two errors in the inning allowing Holbrook to score three more times to take the 5-1 lead and all the momentum heading into the third.
Unfortunately that momentum didn’t hold. After a scoreless third Payson strung together enough hits to score four runs in the top of the fourth tying the game at 5-5. The Longhorns scored what ended up being the game winning and final run of the game in the top of the fifth.
The Longhorn pitcher, Cerna, settled down after Ulibarri’s home run, and allowed just one base hit from the third inning until two outs in the seventh when he had to leave the game.
Holbrook’s pitcher Justin Perkins also performed well on the hill in a losing cause. Perkins worked 5.1 innings giving up six runs on 11 hits with nine strikeouts and walked only two before hitting his pitch limit. Jalen Nez pitched the final 1.2 innings giving up no runs on just one hit with a pair of strikeouts.
Payson’s Cerna got the win with 6.2 innings of work. He gave up the five runs on six hits with seven strikeouts and walked one Holbrook batter.
At the plate, Holbrook finished with only six hits. Perkins helped his own cause going 2 for 4. Ulibarri was 1 for 3, with that one being a two run blast; Gabe Gabaldon was 1 for 4; Brett Buckley, 1 for 3; and Brady Buckley, 1 for 3.
Holbrook finishes the season with an overall record of 20-9. They were 15-4 in regular season power point contests.
Payson fell in the second round of the tournament getting shut out 10-0 in five innings by a powerful third ranked Sahuarita team. Winslow, Show Low and Blue Ridge joined the rest of the 3A East teams with a first round exodus, as the Southern area teams continue their dominance over the rest of the state in 3A baseball.
The four teams playing in the semi finals are Sahuarita vs Casteel and Sabino vs Empire.
