Wranglers score early to win state title

By Kevin Cloe, Publisher

There wasn't much drama in the championship game. That's because Wickenburg High School's baseball team used up every ounce of its drama quota in the previous two rounds of the state playoffs.

So the 6-3 victory against Holbrook in the Arizona 3A title game Saturday night (May 12) at Phoenix Municipal Stadium was a welcome relief for Wrangler fans. They had just witnessed the first Wickenburg High state baseball championship in 27 years Š and they didn't have to wear out the edges of their seats in the process.

Senior Spencer Logan allowed just four hits and struck out seven to lead the Wranglers to the state championship, but it was his two relief appearances in the quarterfinals and the semifinals that gave him a chance to pitch in the title game.

“He's been big for us all season,” noted Wickenburg Coach Ron Bergman after Saturday's game. “He looks forward to pitching in the big games, and he's been a starter since he was a freshman.”

Wickenburg earned the right to play for the championship by holding off Snowflake in the semifinals Friday (May 11). The Wranglers had held a 6-2 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh and final inning, but Snowflake used a couple walks and some timely hitting to score four (and almost five) runs to send the game into an extra inning.

That's when senior Josh Bergman smashed a triple to start the eighth inning, and senior Trey Byrd plated him with a sacrifice fly to center.

Logan, the Wranglers' No. 1 hurler who had pitched in the first-round 13-5 victory against Safford the previous week and was being saved by Coach Bergman for the championship game, was called on in the bottom of the seventh inning to shut down Snowflake and preserve the 7-6 victory.

He was asked to do the same thing the previous week in the quarterfinals against Winslow, when he struck out the final batter with the bases loaded and the potential tying run standing at third base.

The play that kept the Wranglers in the state playoffs last weekend was during Snowflake's four-run seventh-inning rally when the Lobos' Ren Bryant attempted to stretch his two-run triple into an inside-the-park home run to win the game. However, Wrangler catcher Trey Byrd stood in front of home plate to take the throw from right field Š and Bryant crashed into Byrd as the ball arrived. Bryant was eventually tagged out to send the game into an extra inning (see “Play of the Year” and “Determined Defense” in “Special Performances” at right).

Had Bryant scored on the play, the Wranglers would have went home empty-handed, and the Lobos would have advanced to the state championship game against fellow East Region rival Holbrook.

In the semifinal victory Friday, Wickenburg used its usually explosive bats to record 14 hits against Snowflake ace Derek Fusselman. The Wranglers scored in each of the first five innings but left 10 runners stranded on bases in the first five innings.

The Murphy brothers led the offensive effort with three hits each - senior Tyler with a double and two singles, with sophomore Sheldon recording three singles.

Sophomore Dallas Mills started on the mound for the Wranglers and allowed two runs on one hit through four innings, but he walked five. Senior lefthander Wendell Johnson relieved Mills in the bottom of the fifth inning to kept the Lobos off the scoreboard for one inning before facing the last-minute rally by Snowflake in the sixth.

In the championship game, the Wranglers scored five runs in the first inning on singles by Sheldon Murphy and Josh Bergman, an error, Byrd's RBI when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, an RBI walk to Johnson, Josh Amaral's run-scoring ground out, and Drew McIvor's run-scoring single.

And that's the way it stayed for the next four innings.

Holbrook scored three times in the bottom of the fifth, but a flawless defense and Logan's pressure pitching kept the Wrangler fans from becoming too concerned.

The Wranglers finished the championship 2007 season with a school-record 25 victories and 3 losses.

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