Sunrise Mountain aces combine to shut down Nogales in 5A baseball tourney win
Peoria Sunrise Mountain quieted Nogales' aggressive hitters as Tanner Milner and Bryce Madison combined to allow six hits in an 8-1 5A baseball tournament victory at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Thursday.
Earlier this week, No. 3-seed Nogales pounded out 13 hits for 14 runs in a run-rule win over Tucson Catalina Foothills in the double-elimination state playoff tournament.
This time, the Apaches weren't able to solve the right-hander Milner and left-hander Madison.
Madison pitched the last three innings, giving up four hits and no runs. Milner pitched the first four innings, giving up only a run in the first on a sacrifice fly.
"In our last playoff outing, they both had low pitch counts," coach Michael Deardoff said. "They've been really good about recovery after games and doing what they needed to do to get ready to pitch. We felt like if we could get this one, we could get extra rest afterward."
No. 2 Sunrise Mountain (28-3-1) advances to next Wednesday's 5A semifinal. It has reached the state championship game four times in its history, but has yet to win it all. The Mustangs' last championship-game appearance came in 2021.
"We've got lots of confidence knowing that we have our stuff to win it,'' Milner said.
"Whatever Coach calls for us, we're both ready to go."
Sunrise Mountain was able to get to Nogales ace left-hander Sal Valenzuela early, scoring three runs in the first on four hits and another in the second on three hits.
Nogales (17-10) used three pitchers, who didn't get help in the field with five errors.
Sunrise Mountain put together clutch at-bats in the first when Andrew Balian and Cory Oxford both had RBI singles.
The Mustangs tacked on four more runs in the sixth on two hits, three walks and two errors.
After Nogales faced a hard-throwing fastball pitcher from the right side in Milner, Madison came in from the left side, relying on off-speed pitches.
"Two different arm angles," Madison said. "We've been on pitch counts the whole time. We have a strong bullpen and defense. The only error was me at first base. It's a lot easier to pitch when you've got a great defense."
Nogales drops down into an elimination game Monday at Diablo Stadium against Thursday's Campo Verde-Catalina Foothills winner.
The winner of that game would take on Sunrise Mountain in a Wednesday semifinal at Mesa's Hohokam Stadium.
No. 1 Queen Creek Casteel took on No. 4 Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep in Thursday's late winners bracket game at Diablo.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sunrise Mountain aces Milner, Madison combine to shut down Nogales
