Chaparral rebounds from tough baseball loss to defeat Brophy
April 20, 2013 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365
It was a long bus ride back to Scottsdale on Friday night (April 19) after the baseball team from Chaparral High was victimized by a miraculous rally by host Phoenix Brophy Prep, which took a 6-5 victory in eight innings.
Brophy scored three runs in the seventh to tie it and then won it in the eighth.
The teams were back at it almost 12 hours later on Saturday (April 20) at Chaparral, and this time the result was much different.
Chaparral was in control pretty much from the outset and rolled to a 9-1 victory.
Chaparral, No. 7 in the Arizona Interscholastic Association power seedings entering Saturday’s play, improved to 16-11. No. 12 Brophy, meanwhile, slipped to 17-9.
“It was a great high school atmosphere (on Friday night) and you have to give them (Brophy) credit for coming back. It was a long bus ride and a tough-sleeping night for us,’’ said Chaparral coach Sam Messina, whose team defeated Brophy for the Division I championship in 2012 and defeated Gilbert Perry for the Division II crown in 2011.
“After a game like that, your team can go one of two ways. We were resilient. We were able to come back and handle it.’’
Messina got six strong innings from left-hander Dillon Bigcrane on Friday night. It was junior left-hander Andrew Shaps’ turn on Saturday.
Shaps gave up one run on just two hits through five innings before getting relief help from Jack Peck in the sixth inning and Michael Diamond in the seventh.
“Your momentum is as great as your next day’s starting pitching (after a tough loss) and Andrew came out and did a good job,’’ Messina said.
Chaparral jumped on Brophy starter Ryan Castellani early. The Firebirds collected three runs on three hits off the junior right-hander, including a two-run single by Kyle Palmer and a run-scoring single by Tanner Bollig.
Brophy cut the lead to 3-1 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Connor Messman, but Chaparral came back to score four in the bottom of the frame on RBI hits by Colter Kilgour, Collin Gabel, Bigcrane and Bollig.
Chaparral added to its cushion with two in the sixth on run-scoring hits by Matt McKelvey and Shaps.
Brophy wraps up its regular season with a home game against Glendale Deer Valley on Monday night (April 22). Chaparral, which held senior day in its final home game of the regular season, plays road games on Tuesday night (April 23) at Mesa Westwood and Wednesday night (April 24) at Phoenix Horizon.
The state tournament brackets are due to be announced by the AIA on Thursday (April 25).