Coronado beats Liberty twice to earn Sunrise baseball title

When Coronado second baseman Tyler Brown escaped the dogpile in front of the pitcher’s mound Friday at Las Vegas High, he only had one thought.

“We don’t lose anymore,” he shouted.

To capture the Division I Sunrise Region tournament title, the Cougars couldn’t.

Locked in two must-win games, Coronado beat Liberty twice — 3-2 in the first game and 6-4 in the second — to earn its second straight region title and a trip to next week’s Division I state tournament.

The Patriots (26-6) will play Bishop Gorman in the play-in game today at 10 a.m. at Las Vegas. The winner will move on to the state tournament.

“I never thought it would be this satisfying. I never pictured it like this,” Brown said. “I wouldn’t call us an underdog, but we put ourselves in a lot of bad situations that we shouldn’t have. We ended up pulling through.”

Liberty stormed back from a three-run deficit with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie the second game at 4. But Coronado (32-3) never wavered.

With two outs in the sixth, Jackson Cofer singled to right field, stole second base and scored on Brown’s sharp grounder that went through the legs of Liberty’s third baseman. On the throw home, Brown reached second.

Michael Maiello extended Coronado’s lead to 6-4 two pitches later with an RBI single to right.

Liberty got the tying run on base with a hit batsman to start the seventh, but Coronado reliever Chandler Blanchard retired the next three batters.

After the Patriots jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first, Coronado responded.

In the bottom of the inning, the Cougars used three hit batsmen, two RBI singles and Maiello’s towering two-run homer to right to build a 4-1 lead.

Maiello was 2-for-3 with three RBIs, and Cofer went 2-for-3 with a stolen base.

Evan Fresquez, who pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings to cap the day’s first game, went 3 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits before reaching his innings limit.

“We’re taking the weekend off,” Coronado coach David Padilla said with a laugh. “Eight games in a row, we’re going to take the time off, and we’ll come back on Monday with our pitchers rested, ready to go for game one on Thursday.”

In the first game Friday, Julian Burrola hit a two-run opposite-field homer over the right-field fence in the first inning for the Cougars, and Blanchard smacked a leadoff home run in the fourth.

Liberty pulled within 3-2 in the fifth on Giovanni Battistoni’s two-run single up the middle. But after Griffin Kelly drew a four-pitch walk to start the seventh, Fresquez induced a fielder’s choice and then a double play to end the game.

Blanchard was 2-for-3, and Brown was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases.

Liberty’s Chris Bradford struck out 12 batters and walked one.

Contact reporter John W. Scafetta at jscafetta@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0430.