Tempe Corona del Sol is returning to the 6A baseball state final behind infielders asked to pitch out of necessity this year.
Conor Rae, who never took the mound before this season, pitched 6 1/3 innings Friday, May 15, and helped himself at the plate in a 6-3 win over No. 1-seed Queen Creek in a semifinal at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.
After the defending state champion Aztecs graduated three Division I pitchers, and because of injuries to pitchers this season, coach Dave Webb turned to top position players to deliver on the mound.
“We came into the season with everybody doubting us,” Rae said. “Last year was such a fun ride. We lost a good part of our team.
“This year we had a bunch of guys step up and compete their tails off. Me, Kellan (Tom) and Colton (Floyd), the three pitchers as starters. I think Kellan threw two innings last year. I didn’t throw any. Colton wasn’t here. Us stepping up to start games and be there for our guys, that was big.”
No. 4 Corona del Sol (22-7) moves into the Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 p.m., championship game at Tempe Diablo Stadium, awaiting either No. 3 Chandler Hamilton or No. 10 Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor.
O’Connor (26-9) staved off elimination in the double-elimination tournament with a 2-1 win over the Huskies (20-10) on Friday in the later semifinal, as pitcher Matthew Del Carlo outdueled Tyler Nelson. Gio Boncore-Montoya pitched the seventh for the save. Those teams meet again Sunday, May 16, at Hohokam at 6 p.m.
Rae helped himself at the plate with a triple to lead off Corona del Sol’s half of the first inning. He scored on a groundout, part of a two-run first.
In the second, when Queen Creek scored all three of its runs, Webb visited Rae on the mound.
“He’s like, ‘Thanks for coming out here, I’m exhausted,'” Webb said. “That was when he gave up the three runs. Once he got his feet under him, he was going to be OK.”
After giving up five hits in the second, Rae got through the next four innings, yielding only two hits and getting leadoff batter Jet Berry, one of the most dangerous hitters in the state, to pop up twice on change-ups.
Parker Williams, who drove in a run in the first, had a two-run double in Corona del Sol’s four-run fourth that would be enough runs for the Aztecs to stay unbeaten in the tournament.
Floyd came on with one out in the seventh and retired the next two batters for the save.
Queen Creek battled out of the losers’ bracket, winning three games in six days to get to the semifinals. O’Connor eliminated No. 2 seed Queen Creek Casteel on May 12. It showed the kind of parity in 6A this season.
Queen Creek coach Mikel Moreno said he felt he had enough pitching to get to the final.
“We had walks and errors,” Moreno said. “We just didn’t make enough plays. I mean this is high school baseball. Anybody who complains about playing this many games in this many days are losers. You’ve got to be able to play. You’ve got to be able to compete.”
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. Please sign up for Azcentral Preps Now newsletter. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Corona del Sol returns to 6A baseball final