Rams beat Apache Junction

The Maricopa High School baseball team built an early lead and held on for a 6-5 victory Tuesday over Apache Junction.

With the win, the visiting Rams improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in games that count in the AIA power rankings for Class 4A-II.

“Apache Junction is in 4A-I, so we picked up an extra five power points, which is always good,” Maricopa coach Daron Connelly said. “Now we have to come out and kind of retool and get ready to face Queen Creek, another 4A-I school, on Thursday (in the Rams’ home opener).”

Against Apache Junction (1-3 overall), the Rams scored four runs in the top of the first inning, one in the second and one in the fifth to pull ahead 6-0 before the Prospectors rallied with a run in the bottom of the fifth and four in the sixth.

Apache Junction had the potential tying run on second base with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but Maricopa relief pitcher Joey Kelly retired the final two batters to record the save.

Freshman left-hander Dallas Speer pitched the first 5 2/3 innings to earn the win for Maricopa, limiting Apache Junction to three runs on six hits.

“He got us deep into the sixth inning,” Connelly said. “We couldn’t ask for more. We couldn’t ask for more if he was a senior.”

Speer, who struck out five batters and walked seven, worked out of jams in the first, second and third innings, when Apache Junction left a total of seven runners on base and failed to score.

“We still have some things we have to work on, but he showed great poise and got the win,” Connelly said. “He deserved the win.”

A.J. Beltran, J.C. Seymore and Justin Warren had base hits in Maricopa’s four-run first inning. Warren’s single drove in Beltran with the first run of the game. An RBI fielder’s choice off the bat of Kelly brought home Armando Cano, who had walked. Warren and Kelly scored the third and fourth runs of the inning on Apache Junction errors.

Seymore drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning off Apache Junction starting pitcher Brian Drennan to force in another run for Maricopa.

The Rams added their sixth run in the fifth inning, when Kelly walked, went to third on a double by Ryan Sarver and scored on a wild pitch.

The Rams left the bases loaded without scoring in the sixth. The Maricopa offense stranded a total of 11 runners in the game.

“Although we did draw a lot of walks today (10) and we were able to score enough runs to win, we still had plenty of opportunities where we should have scored a whole lot more runs,” Connelly said. “We have to understand that when a pitcher is struggling, we need to take more pitches in that situation.”

Apache Junction, meanwhile, left a total of 12 runners on base.

After stranding eight runners in the first four innings, the Prospectors broke through in the fifth for their first run against Speer with an RBI single by Johnathan Converse.

Speer struck out the first two Apache Junction batters in the sixth, but Jared Kraps hit a two-out single and Jonathan Hanson drove him in with a double to center field. Speer then was relieved by right-handed pitcher Sabian Johnson.

Apache Junction third baseman Nick Saathoff hit a two-run homer over the fence in right-center field to draw the Prospectors within 6-4, and AJ added an unearned run later in the sixth inning to make it 6-5.

In the bottom of the seventh, Apache Junction put a runner on second base with one out, but Maricopa’s Kelly, a senior right-hander, struck out Kraps and retired Hanson on an infield popup to end the game.

Photo by Tom Kessler