Republishing Compliments
of
Arizona Tribune, August 2004
Mesquite Stuns Gilbert
By Les Willsey, Staff Writer
Tigers No Longer Unbeaten in Fiesta Region
Play
Teams can never get too comfortable when they lead the 5A Fiesta
Region in baseball.
That case was made again Tuesday afternoon as visiting Mesquite
knocked off region unbeaten Gilbert, 6-1. But the Tigers remained
in first place in the region by a half game over Highland (4-2),
who lost Tuesday.
Sophomore right-hander Seth Furmanek allowed five hits and
hit a two-run homer in a three-run fifth inning that broke open
a tight game to help himself and got defense behind him that
Mesquite coach Jeff Holland has been yearning for all season.
Gilbert (13-7, 4-1) had won its first four region games and
was the only team not to have a loss in region since league
play began two weeks ago. Few if any of the region coaches expected
anyone to go undefeated.
“It’s been tight the last four years,” Holland
said. “We put hits together a couple of times and got
Seth something to work with. Seth’s a student of the game.
He’s always checking the pitching charts and asking questions.”
Mesquite (11-11, 3-2) beat Gilbert ace Brandon Thomson, who
tossed a three-hit shutout at Hamilton in his last outing. The
Wildcats ripped three consecutive hits (four in the inning)
and scored three times in the second to go ahead, 3-0.
Joe Cuttone and Ronnie Welty had doubles in the inning and
Matt Kirschler and Jeff Scafaria drove in a run each. A third
run scored on a strike out passed ball.
Furmanek pitched out of jams in the third and fifth, but for
the most part had Gilbert hitters off-balance by mixing his
pitches. Furmanek induced 12 ground outs and every one resulted
in an out, which hasn’t always been the case this season.
“We played defense today and that was huge,” Holland
said. “We can be tough on people if we catch the ball.”
Furmanek gave up an unearned run in the third (the run scored
on a strikeout passed ball). He gave himself a little cushion
by hitting a home run to right-center following a leadoff single
by Alex Magana in the fifth. Two Gilbert errors led to an extra
run in the inning off Thomson. Thomson allowed eight hits and
four earned runs in six innings. He struck out 10.
“We’ve got a good mix of guys”, Furmanek,
one of four sophomores that start for the Wildcats, said. “Teams
see that we are pretty young and come out thinking they’ll
beat up on us. It doesn’t always happen.”
Magana and Matt Kirschler had two hits each for Mesquite. Marcos
Rosales had two hits and a walk in four place appearances for
Gilbert.
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