April 18 , 2006
SPORTSBaseball cruising along as No. 2 team in nation
With a current record of 33-12, Thunderbird baseball is having a great season thus far. But considering that MCC has made the playoffs 17 times in the last 20 years, it’s not much of a surprise.
Under the coaching of Tony Cirelli, the Thunderbirds have been making effective headway in their goal to win their division.
Mesa is currently in first place in the ACCAC Division II standings with a sizeable lead over Scottsdale and Glendale Community Colleges, who are battling it out for second place. The T-Birds are also ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA Division II baseball poll.
“We’re sitting in a good position now, we’ve got a six game lead,” Cirelli said on April 4.
The team struggled with its bullpen early in the season but, according to Coach Cirelli, things are starting to smooth out.
“Early in the season, we would start the games (by scoring) runs, and then lose our leads later on,” he added.
However, sophomore pitcher AJ Montano has stepped in as the team’s closer and recorded five saves to date.
With Montano closing and right hander Brian Broderick ranked third in the conference with six wins and a 1.05 ERA, the team is gaining confidence in its bullpen and pitching staff.
Others contributing from the pitching rotation are Matthew Van Den Heuvel, James Maxwell and Dan Kazell. All three have at least five wins for the 2006 season.
“We’ve got some great pitchers. We’ve got a lot of solid players who are going to put up some big numbers this season,” Cirelli added.
One of those players putting up big numbers is MCC outfielder Nate Burnham.
Burnham leads the ACCAC in both runs scored and hits, while holding second place for his batting average, which is .437.
Additionally, sophomores Michael Levi and Bryan Miller lead the conference in RBIs, with Levi having 45 and Miller with 40.
A home game against visiting SCC on April 4 proved that Mesa has indeed learned to hold onto their leads till the end of the game.
The first inning of this match up saw eight runs scored, six of which came from MCC.
Following the offensive explosion, there was excellent fielding from both teams until the top of the sixth, when Scottsdale appeared to be catching up.
They scored three runs, narrowing MCC’s lead to two with the score being 7-5.
However, when Mesa returned to the plate, they quickly loaded the bases with Thunderbirds. This led SCC to change pitchers, which ended up being ineffective when Levi knocked in two runs.
Another run was scored for MCC when a T-Bird batter was hit by a pitch with the bases still loaded.
Scottsdale’s shortstop then made a diving catch to end the inning, but the damage was done with MCC moving ahead, 12-5.
Scottsdale did have one chance to close back in on Mesa in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases. Yet, SCC was only able to get one run across the plate.
Mesa countered the Artichoke effort with another two runs in the bottom half of the eighth inning. The game ended with MCC on top, 14-6.
The Thunderbirds will look to finish the season strong and prepare for the playoffs which begin in May.
Volume 43, Issue 13. Today is
photos by Ami Johnson