Amphitheater meets up with Prescott at Panther Invitational
by Andy Morales on Mar. 02, 2013, under Sports
A close play at third base between Amphi and Prescott. Andy Morales photos.
Amphitheater and Prescott played in a spirited game at the Panther Invitational Saturday morning with the Badgers coming out on top 7-2.
Prescott jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to a double by sophomore pitcher Cole Fairbairn that brought in two runs. Despite a first inning single given up to Anthony Siebert and an error in the third inning, Fairbairn kept all Amphi batters of the bases until Martin Calvo singled to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning.
Prescott had added two more runs by then so the Panthers needed a spark. Nolan Patterson followed with a single and then pitcher Thomas Bolen singled in Calvo for Amphi’s first run.
Prescott got off the hook thanks to a line-out to double off Patterson and Amphi was held to one run. The same set of circumstances hurt Amphi n the bottom of the fifth after Marcel Olivas doubled but was caught in another line-out double play.
Patterson doubled with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning and Bolen brought him home to make it 4-2. Jose Mada followed with a rope to right but the ball was snagged by the first baseman.
All thoughts of making a run in the final inning ended after the first two Prescott batters reached on errors to start the seventh inning. Siebert relieved Bolen in the top of the fourth and he shutdown Prescott from there until he was replaced in the top of the seventh.
Calvo struggled after the first two batters reached and he went on to walk in two runs and then gave up a hit to bring in the third run of the inning. Down 7-2, Amphi went down in order to end the game.
Patterson went 2-3 with a double, Bolen went 2-3 with 2 RBIs, Olivas had a double and Siebert and Calvo went 1-3 for Amphi.
Fairbairn went the distance for Prescott and Brian Smith went 3-3 with a double for Prescott.
NOTES: Former Santa Cruz, Salpointe, CDO, Casa Grande and Prescott coach Kent Winslow is now an assistant coach at Prescott. Winslow had resigned from Prescott in 2007 to coach a second stint at Salpointe but he soon left to coach at Casa Grande.
Kent Winslow File
1982 Santa Cruz (Championship)
1996 Salpointe (2nd Place)
1997 Salpointe (2nd Place)
2000 CDO (Championship)
2002 Prescott (Championship)
Winslow coached future major leaguers Brian Anderson, Shelley Duncan, Scott Hairston and Ian Kinsler while at CDO.
Current Amphi head coach Nick Allen moved over to Amphi after coaching at Ironwood Ridge. He was Amphi’s previous top assistant under Todd Naskedov. Naskedov coached Amphi to the 4A-I championship game in 2006 where they lost to Chaparral.
Amphitheater won a state championship in 1980 under Paul Gabaldon.
