Jesse Koning is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover AIA High School for AZPreps365.com. 

The Phoenix Country Day Eagles (6-2, 2-0 2A Valley) rallied in the final innings Thursday to defeat Arizona Lutheran, 10-7, and split the season series with the Coyotes (5-6, 1-1 2A Valley).

After dropping the first meeting between the two teams 15-9, the Eagles bounced back with a strong defensive performance and a late-game surge to secure the win.

“We got into a really big hole. We were down about 10 runs, and we fought back, but we just couldn’t get there. You know, they’re a good team; like I said, they’re gonna put good at-bats up and down the lineup.” Said manager Kai Etheridge.

Senior Jack Whalen delivered a major highlight in the second inning, launching his first career home run — a three-run shot — to give the Eagles an early lead. Whalen, a four-year varsity player, said he was "excited and pumped" after the milestone hit.

“It felt pretty good coming off the bat. I kind of felt like it was just like a deep pop fly, but I heard my coach yelling and realized it had just gone out.” Said Whalen.

One at bat after Whalen’s blast, sophomore Reed Ross followed with a solo home run to extend the lead to 4-0.

The Coyotes answered in the next two innings, scoring four runs to tie the game and stifling the Eagles’ offense.

In the top of the fourth, Ross came through again with an RBI double to score Whalen and give the Eagles a 5-4 lead. However, Arizona Lutheran responded in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs off sophomore starter Kailer Smith. Freshman reliever Ben Burgess entered the game, but the Coyotes took a 7-5 lead, which they held into the sixth.

“Ben Burgess came in the inning in relief. He gave us a lift. You know, Kyler hadn’t pitched in over a week, maybe ten days. So he was a little bit off today, not as sharp as usual. So Ben came in and gave us a big lift.” Said manager Etheridge.

With two runners on in the top of the sixth, Ross was intentionally walked to load the bases. A throwing error on a ground ball hit by sophomore Soren Etheridge brought in a run, cutting the deficit to one. With two outs and the bases still loaded, sophomore Carson Rose ripped a double to deep left field, clearing the bases and giving the Eagles a 9-7 lead.

Whalen scored again in the seventh on a double by Logan Rose, adding an insurance run.

Burgess closed out the game, shutting down the Coyotes’ offense in the final frames.

The energy from the Eagles’ dugout fueled the dramatic comeback, helping them secure the 10-7 victory and a key 2A Valley region win.

“We brought some pretty good energy throughout the entire thing,” said Whalen.

“I think the main thing is we just got really loud in the dugout. However, we can like as long as we’re loud that what really gets us going, and then everything else follows.” Said Sophmore Reed Ross. 

This team's resiliency was shown when they were down and could not get much going in some innings. 

“We got down there at one point, but you know we kept going, got back on top, and just kept it back.” Said Whalen. 

“It was a tough fight. We kind of battled back closer to the end of the game. We had a couple of talks about it over the last couple of games, how we’ve been kind of dying down late in the game. So we really just stayed though and, like, persevered,” said Ross.