West-Oak upends Gilbert to force winner-take-all finale for 3A baseball crown
After losing big to Gilbert on Tuesday, West-Oak High School pitcher Austin Stephens was given the ball with the task of keeping the Warriors’ season alive on Thursday in Westminster.
Stephens more than delivered, pitching a complete game two-hitter and leading the Warriors to a 6-0 win over the Indians in Game 2 of the Class 3A state championship series, forcing a decisive Game 3 on Saturday.
“We just got punched in the mouth on Tuesday,” Stephens said. “We felt disrespected, so my mindset was to shove it down their throats. I was for sure feeling it — I was in my bag today.”
Gilbert and West-Oak are now set for a winner-takes-all Game 3 on Saturday at USC Upstate at 1 p.m., and Gilbert head coach Ashley Burnett is hoping that his team can bounce back with a state title on the line.
“We knew they were a tough team,” Burnett said. “It went our way the other night and tonight it was definitely their night. That’s the way baseball is. I hope Saturday will be a dogfight. I hope we can show up and give them a game.
“This would motivate me, but I don’t get to play anymore. We just have to go back, regroup and get ready to play on Saturday.”
Beyond just Stephens’ dominance, West-Oak head coach Nick Groomes said the Warriors’ (20-8) mindset was a huge reason they were able to bounce back from the 14-4 loss to the Indians (16-8) in Gilbert on Tuesday.
“We challenged those guys. They knew what was at stake tonight and they didn’t want this to be their last game,” he said. “We just wanted to show that the other night wasn’t who we are — that was just uncharacteristic. We had a job to do, we were focused today and I just felt like we were going to come out and compete really hard — and we did.”
The game was a pitcher’s duel through four innings, as Stephens and Gilbert starter Joseph Parker made sure the game was scoreless heading into the bottom of the fifth.
That’s when the West-Oak bats came to life.
Braiden Moore led off the inning with a triple, and Carlos Escamilla was able to drive him in two batters later. Austin Merritt then scored on an error, and Escamilla found his way home on a wild pitch.
Kurt Rogers added an RBI single, and then a bases-loaded walk and hit batter on back-to-back at-bats extended the Warriors lead to 6-0. The six-run inning was more than enough for West-Oak to see out the win.
“We felt like we were close a few times to having that type of inning, and finally it just all came together,” Groomes said. “It started with the bottom of the lineup, and that’s what I was most excited about. It was a really good team performance.”
For Groomes, the message to his team heading into Saturday is simple.
“We just have to be us,” he said. “We got here a certain way, and we’re going to stick to our guns. I love where we are, I love our kids and I have a feeling they’re going to play as hard as they can.
“We have two really good ball teams that are going to leave it all on the field — we love that, we’ll embrace that and then Saturday we’ll see what happens.”
Pitching: WP — Stephens, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K; LP — Parker, 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. Hitting: WO — Moore 2-2, 3B, 2B, RBI, R, BB; Eaton 2-2, R, HBP; Escamilla 1-3, RBI, R; GHS — Vining 1-1, BB; Reynolds 1-3
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 11:09 PM.