Damon Fairall is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Chaparral High School for AZPreps365.com 

PHOENIX --- The No. 13 Corona del Sol Aztecs escaped with a narrow 2-1 victory over the No. 12 Chaparral Firebirds in the annual 6A Diamondbacks High School Baseball Challenge at Chase Field on Wednesday night. 

Aztecs junior pitcher and Arizona State commit Cole Carlon managed to throw a complete game after a shaky first inning. 

Corona del Sol coach Dave Webb credited his team’s pitching and defense as the keys to the game. 

“Defense and pitching wins,” Webb said. “Cole Carlon just pitched his tail off today and that’s what won the game. When we get into these tough games later in the season, that you gotta win, it comes down to pitching and defense.”

The Firebirds came into the game averaging over ten runs per game in their last five ballgames, but could not get going against Carlon. 

The only noise the Chaparral offense created came in the top of the first inning. After a leadoff walk by center fielder Ethan Hott, left fielder Jackson Estes stepped to the plate. Estes turned on a Carlon pitch and hit a high fly ball that looked destined to land in the left field bleachers. 

Instead, the ball caromed off the glove of Aztecs left fielder Trey Anderson and dropped directly in front of the 374 feet sign on the left center warning track. 

Estes' double set up runners on second and third with no outs in what was geared up to be a massive first inning for Chaparral. But after a strikeout, sacrifice fly, and groundout to third base, the Firebirds managed to score only one run. 

Estes thought his swing had the distance. 

“Right away I was like ‘this might be gone, this might be gone,’” Estes said. “I got all of it. It was a little high, I hit it a little high in the air, but it felt really good. In our ballpark back at Chaparral that probably would have been gone.”

That one run proved to be the difference. 

Chaparral coach Troy Gerlach highlighted the struggles his team had with the distant Chase Field walls. 

“We have a big yard at Chaparral,” Gerlach said. “It’s 390 (feet) to center and 330 down the lines, but it’s not 374 in the gap. He [Estes] hit that ball and he thought it was out. Ethan Hott hit a ball to left that we thought had a chance and it didn’t even get to the warning track. It’s a big ballpark. Guys just have to do a better job at staying on top and hitting line drives and letting the ball get in the gap so we can run a little bit, and we just didn’t take advantage of that tonight.”

Carlon also mentioned the outfield dimensions as a factor in the game.

“Some pitches I threw weren’t really the best and they barrelled it,” Carlon said. “It’s a big ballpark and I kind of got lucky with that.”

Despite the issues that come with playing on such a big field, the experience was well worth it, especially with playoffs starting at the end of the month. 

“It’s unbelievable,” Gerlach said. “These kids all want to be big leaguers someday and to get an opportunity to play in a big league park, the only thing that was missing was 20,000 people, but great atmosphere, great ballpark.”

For Carlon, the stage was overwhelming at first, but he settled in quickly. 

“I had some nerves going into it,” Carlon said. “But after the first two batters I got settled in and just kept rolling.”

According to Carlon, the outing was one of the best of his young career.

“One of the best games (I’ve pitched),” Carlon said. “My defense was a big part of that.”

The Aztecs needed this kind of performance on the mound because much like Chaparral, they also could not awaken their bats. 

Both of Corona del Sol’s runs came in the first two innings and neither were credited with an RBI. 

In the bottom of the first, a single and stolen base by center fielder Ayden Crouse put the senior in scoring position. Shortstop Connor Bigelow followed it up with a single of his own to put runners at the corners with no outs. 

Bigelow proceeded to steal second and with it being the first inning, the Firebirds attempted to throw him out and allowed Crouse to come in to score. 

In the second, two leadoff base runners set up first and second with no outs. After catching a poor bunt attempt for the first out, Chaparral committed a throwing error that allowed the lead runner to score for the second run of the ballgame. 

After a quick three runs by both teams, offense was scarce and pitching dominated. 

Chaparral starting pitcher Andrew Carroll struck out six batters through four innings with relief pitcher Wyatt Halvorson adding two more. 

Gerlach was happy with his pitchers, but needs to see more out of his offense in upcoming games. 

“Our guys were being aggressive and I like that, but we got to do a better job at staying on top of the baseball,” Gerlach said. “We just tried to do too much offensively. We gotta get back to staying on top of the baseball and hit line drives in the gaps.”

Next up, Chaparral (8-6) will look to bounce back against region rival No. 4 Sandra Day O’Connor (10-4) at home on Thursday night. 

Meanwhile, Corona del Sol (7-6) will also match up with a region opponent when it takes on Highland (6-8) at home Thursday afternoon.