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SIERRA VISTA — A wild contest between the Buena and Sunnyside baseball teams ended with a frantic Buena rally coming up just short in the bottom of the seventh.
Trailing 13-8 and showing no signs of offensive life heading into their final turn at bat against Sunnyside reliever Erick Noruga, the Colts struck for four runs but left the tying run on second as Taylor Stone, who homered in the second, struck out swinging on an 0-2 breaking ball in the dirt to end the game.
“We were in a situation we wanted to be in,” Buena head coach Bill Wright said. “We had guys on base with a chance to tie the game or get ahead. In the last inning they helped us out a little bit but I was pleased with the way our guys continued to fight.”
Buena fell behind 8-1 in the second inning, but scored seven in the bottom of the inning behind Stone’s home run and doubles by Miguel Trujillo and Jake Thomas.
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Stone lasted just two innings before giving the ball to sophomore Wade Moody, who held the Blue Devils to three runs over the next two innings before turning the pitching duties over to Ronnie Burdette, who held Sunnyside to two runs.
“With the conditions, we knew it was going to be a very difficult day,” Wright said. “The wind kind of held some of (Stone’s) off-speed pitches up in the zone and they’ve got a good hitting team.”
Trujillo began the seventh-inning rally with a triple to center that seemed to lift the trouble the Colts were having with hitting Noruga.
“Our guys just continued to talk to each other about his pitch sequence and when he threw what pitches,” Wright said. “We fought the battles and put the ball in play.”
On Saturday the Colts travel to Tucson to take on Tucson High in a 6:30 p.m. start at Hi Corbett Field. With a win the Colts can claim a share of the region title and their first state tournament berth since 2003.
