August 12, 2011

The Midland Redskins jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back as they defeated the AZ Firebirds for the Connie Mack World Series Championship.

August 11, 2011

Steve Casey scattered 5 hits in a 5 inning shutout as the Firebirds defeated the Farmington Cardinals 8-0 in the Connie Mack World Series.

Drew Stankiewicz went 3-3 and Willie Ethington had 2 hits. Joe Serrano knocked in tow runs.

 Three teams remain..the ‘birds, Midland Redskins and Florida Legends. The Firebirds have not had a bye while the other two teams have …therefore the Firebirds play the winner of the Florida/Midland rematch for the Championship tomorrow night.

August 10, 2011

The Arizona Firebirds got a complete game 4 hit pitching effort from Oscar Gonzalez  and Willie Ethington went 3-3 with a  double and triple to win an elimination game  against  Puerto Rico 6-1. PR took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1^st and led until the 4^th, when Ethington tripled in a pair of runs. The ‘birds would hang a 5 spot in the 5^th and hang on for the win. Joe Serrano knocked in 3 runs. They play the host Farmington Cards Thursday night.

The Firebirds dropped a tough one to the Midland Redskins on Tuesday. AZ pitching walked  8 hitters on the night . The Firebirds would fall 10-3 despite out hitting Midland 8 to 7.

August 8, 2011

Stephen Tarpley tossed a 2 hit  complete game shutout  as the Arizona Firebirds blanked the DBAT Mustangs 2-0. Tarpley was dominant, walking only 2 while striking out 7. Casey Thomas had 2 hits for the ‘birds. 8 different Firebirds collected hits.

The Firebirds face the Midland Redskins on Tuesday night.

August 7, 2011

In the Connie Mack World Series, Nick Diamond struck out 9 and allowed only 3 singles as the Arizona Firebirds blanked the Michigan Travelers 8-0 in a 5 inning mercy rule game. Drew Stankiewicz paced the ‘birds by going 3-3 from the leadoff spot.

The Firebirds face the DBAT Mustangs from Dallas on Monday night.

July 25, 2011

The AZ Athletics 18U team culminated a very competitive Connie Mack State Tournament with a 7-2 win over AZ Pro White to claim the title on Sunday morning. Steven Kane tossed a complete game to earn the win. Brandon Demarest drove in 5 runs for the A's on a pair of doubles.

Jared Gaynor gets the sign (L) Oscar Gonzalez beats Jorge Ozuna's tag

Jordan Spaulding throws across (L) Steven Kane works for the A's

All Star Baseball 17 defeated a tough AZ Athletics squad to claim the Don Mattingly State Tournament and win the paid berth to the Mattingly World Series. Joey Curletta got the win on the mound.

July 18, 2011

All Star Baseball Academy-Romero bashed their way to the 2011 Mickey Mantle State Championship on Saturday night, defeating ASBA-LeBrun 17-7 in the championship game.

ASBA Romero pounded out 76 runs in 5 games during the tourney, and now head to the Mantle Western Region Champiosnhip in West Covina, CA beginning this Thursday.

Sister team ASBA Lebrun played very well all week as well. This is the 15U ASBA team and the defending Sandy Koufax World Series Champion of a year ago.

This makes back to back state titles for ASBA Romero, who qualified for regional last year as 15 year olds.

It also makes two state championships so far this summer for ASBA, who last week took the title in the Sandy Koufax division.

Its about time people start giving Director Jonn Freitas and his players and coaches some love here. Great job guys.

July 15, 2011

The Angels 2012 White team has concluded play in Georgia at the Perfect Game 17U Championships. The Angels fared well, going 4-1, finishing second in their pool and receiving an at large spot in the championship bracket. After a first round win they ran up against a tough ABD Bulldog team and were eliminated.

If you are looking for a local camp opportunity, Grand Canyon will be hosting a 2 day hitting camp on July 21-22. Click here for details.

July 9, 2011

Congratulations to the All Star Baseball Academy 14U team for winning the state tournament and earning a berth in the Sandy Koufax World Series as the Host team. ASBA defeated a game Halos Red team 2 out of 3 times in the tourney, including an 8-0 win in the final.

July 7, 2011

Arizona teams fared very well in the Firecracker Classic tournament in California.

The Diamondbacks 17U team won the championship at the Firecracker Classic in California. With the win the DBacks get a paid berth in the Don Mattingly World Series July 26-31.

The AZ valley Dogs (aka Wildfire) defeated All Star baseball Academy 4-3 in the championship game of the 16U division. The Dogs get a berth in the Mickey Mantle Western Regional.

June 27, 2011

The Arizona Firebirds went undefeated against a very tough field to emerge as the champion of the 2011 National Connie Mack World Series Qualifier. With the win the 'birds head to the CM WS in Farmington, N.M. August 5-12, 2011.

Great pitching performances, were the story of the week, including complete games from Nick Diamond (1 run allowed) Michael Howard and Stephen Tarpley (both shutouts). Diamond would also throw 3 shutout innings in relief in the championship game and was named the Most valuable Pitcher for the tournament.

Dallas Patriots' CF Tyler Coker received the Big Stick Award for the top offensive performer of the tournament.

Here is the Firebirds roster:

The Arizona Diamondbacks 16U Red team made the best showing by an AZ team in years at the USA Baseball 16U Championships, eventually taking 4th place in the 72 team field.

All Star Baseball Academy entered the championship round as the 4th seed overall and The Show from Tucson as the 3rd seed.

Other AZ teams who qualified for the championship round were SABA (11), AZ Diamondbacks Red (12), and Warriors Baseball (19). With 6 teams qualifying for championship round play it was the best overall AZ performance in recent memory.

Team AZ took 3rd place in the Heartland Classic (formerly Senior Sunbelt) Tournament.

Nathaniel Causey homered 6 times in the event and was named to the All- Tournament team along with Steven Kane from Sunrise Mountain.

June 16, 2011

Team AZ couldn't get the bats going in the 3rd place game at the Junior Sunbelt, falling 2-0 to Georgia in the team's final game in the tourney.

Jaren Drummond started on the mound and tossed 3 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit. AZ only managed 3 hits on the day.

June 14, 2011

The undefeated Tennessee team got  the better of Team AZ 10-7 in Tuesday's second game for AZ.

Joey Curletta's solo shot in the bottom of the second put AZ up early 1-0. Tenn immediately responded with 3 runs in the top of the third and 3 in the fourth.

Caleb Wood and Zach Gibbons each had a pair of hits for AZ. Curletta, Wood and David Graybill homered for AZ.

Garrett Jeffries took the loss on the mound.

Team AZ passed the first of  today's two stiff tests, defeating Georgia 8-4. Zach Gibbons, David Graybill and Juan Gamez all homered. Gamez went 2-3 on the day. Cody Moffett  worked 5 2/3 innings for the win, scattering 6 hits and allowing 4 runs. Nick Diamond went the last 1  1/3 for the save.

AZ is playing the undefeated Tennessee now.

June 13, 2011

Team AZ continued its destruction of opposing pitching, homering 6 times in a 19-6 pounding of Mississippi.

AZ jumped out to an early 5-0 first inning lead keyed by a two run blasts from Marcus Wheeler and Brendon Erickson. Mississippi would score a run of their in the bottom of the first.

In the second, AZ blew it open. Emo Torrez was hit by pitch to start the inning. Nelson Benjamin and Zach Gibbons  followed with walks to load the bases, before David Graybill connected on a grand slam. Wheeler and Joey Curletta then drew back to back walks and Cooper Smith singled to load the bags again. Torrez would follow with a bases clearing double and it was good night now.

Zack Gibbons homered with Caleb Wood aboard in the 3rd, and 2 batters later Wheeler added his second blast of the day, a solo shot. Cody Moffett finished the homer barrage with a 2 run tater in the 4th.

AZ finished with 14 hits on the day, with 11 different players collecting knocks. Mississippi helped the cause as well, committing 4 errors. 

Tuesday looks to be a difficult day, as AZ faces Georgia and the tournament's lone undefeated team, Tennessee in back to back games. AZ is now 6-1 in the tourney and has won 6 games in a row.

June 12, 2011

Team AZ battled back from an early deficit to claim a 5-4 win over Oklahoma Blue. Zach (The Toy Cannon) Gibbons, unloaded for his 4th bomb of the tournament. Garrett Jeffries knocked in a pair of runs for Arizona.

Zach Smutzer, Nelson Benjamin and Brendon Erickson combined on the mound to earn the win. AZ moves to 4-1 inthe tourney.

On Monday, the Zonies face Mississippi at 2:00 pm local time.

Ben Skuro allowed a lead off single and a solo run in the 1st inning but tossed no hit ball the rest of the way as Team AZ took a 15-1 win over Missouri. AZ pounded out 12 hits including 3 homers and stole 6 bags en route to the  thrashing.

AZ broke open a 1-1 game with a 5 run second inning. The 2 teams traded zeros until the sixth when Caleb Wood homered with West Tunnell aboard. In the 7th, AZ would hang a crooked 7  keyed by  a solo blast from Nick Diamond and Cody Moffett's grand slam.

Nelson Benjamin, in the lead off hole, went 2-5 and scored 3 runs. Caleb Wood went 2-4 with a double and homer and knocked in 3 runs. Ten Arizona players had hits.

Brendon Erickson launched a a pair of scuds and knocked in 5 runs to lead Team AZ to a 12-1 win over Colorado yesterday at the Junior Sunbelt. Nick Diamond doubled, tripled and went 3-4 with 2 RBIs. Zach Gibbons also went 3-4 with 2 steaks.

Jaren Drummond got the win on the mound, working 4 strong innings and allowing only 1 run, a first inning solo homer. Jeremy Timpf worked 2 scoreless innings in relief.

The AZ lads tee it up with Missouri today at 2:00 and Oklahoma Blue at 5:45 local time.

June 11, 2011

Team AZ moved to 2-1 in the Junior Sunbelt tournament with a 12-3 win over Canada. Zach Gibbons once again provided the fireworks, cranking his second homer of the tourney and going 2-4 with 4 RBIs. AZ also got long balls from Joey Curletta and Caleb Wood. Nelson Benjamin went 2-3 and scored 3 runs. On the hill, Andrew Naderer earned the win with 5 strong innings, allowing only 3 runs.

Zach Gibbons homered and went 2-4 with 3 RBIs as Team AZ dropped Oklahoma Gold 6-3 at the Junior Sunbelt Friday. Brendon Erickson went 2-3 with a double and drove in a pair of runs.

AZ got behind 3-0 early before knotting the score in the bottom of the second and then tacking on 3 more in the 4th. Garrett Jeffries worked 3 innings before giving way to Caleb Wood, who tossed 4 scoreless innings of one hit ball.

June 10, 2011

The AZ Junior Sunbelt team dropped their opener to Texas this morning by a score of 7-6. After falling behind 3-0 early due to some shaky  defense, AZ rallied with 5 runs in the 3rd. Marcus Whheeler tripled and scored on a Nick Diamond hit. Aaron Smith would later go deep for a 3 run jack.

Texas would win it in the ninth after a questionable call on a play at first and a seeing eye grounder that drove in the game winner.

Cody Moffett started for Team AZ and threw well.

June 8, 2011

The AZ Sabercats 16U team is now 4-0 and has gone unscored upon in their 4 games.  Friday night they won 3-0 and 10-0 against the Hammer with Logan Peterson and Nick Meservey throwing complete game shutouts. 

Last night they beat Extreme Baseball 16U by 3-0 and 9-0 margins.  Michael Bloom and Logan Peterson combined on the first game shutout and Stephen Gifford, Nick Meservey, Brett Adams and Logan Peterson worked the second game.  Offensive highlights: In Game 1 Eric Cabrera went 2-3 and Brett Adams went 3-3 with a 2B and 3B.  Adams scored 2 runs and drove in the third.  In Game 2, Adams and Meservey each went 3-4 while Turner Lace and Matt Mara each had 2 hits.

June 7, 2011

Congratulations to the winning teams at The 4 Corner Classic:

18U DBacks 18 Red

16U The Show

14U All Star Baseball

The AZ Athletics had a good showing as well, playing in the championship games in the 16U and 18U division. The 18U and 17U teams went a combined 5-1 in Pool play.

All Star Baseball's 18 and 17 teams both went 2-1

The DBacks 4 teams in 18U all won their pools and went a combined 9-1-2.

The Angels 4 teams went a combined 7-8 in pool play in the 18U division. While none of their 18U teams won their pool and advanced to bracket play, one of the 3 16U teams did win a pool.