Citizen Staff Writer
BASEBALL
KEN BRAZZLE
kbrazzle@tucsoncitizen.com
The Cholla High School baseball team is starting to get healthy again.
The host Chargers held on to beat Flowing Wells 7-6 on Friday in a Class 4A nonconference game.
“Our pitching came through when we needed it to and our bats came around,” Cholla Larry Lopez said. “We’ve been plagued with some injuries and today we saw those guys come around.”
One of those guys was pitcher Rene Ortiz, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning to record the save. Ortiz struck out the last two batters he faced.
“He had been out with some shoulder problems but he came back throwing heat today,” Lopez said.
Cholla used three pitchers to hold off Flowing Wells. Adrian Cordova started and was relieved by George Larrinaga in the sixth.
Flowing Wells tagged Cordova for four runs in the top of the third. Artie Carrera tripled in two runs and Stephan Desgagne singled in another run. Dylan Dyson added a sacrifice fly.
Cholla took advantage of Johnny Gomez’s inability to throw strikes in the bottom of the third. Gomez walked four batters, leading to five runs.
The Chargers got RBIs in the inning from Cordova, Angel Alvarez-Cecena and Larrinaga.
“We were able to get deep into some counts,” Lopez said. “We weren’t trying to do too much with the pitch. We went with what they gave us.
“The biggest thing was clutch hitting with runners on. Some of our veterans came through with some timely hitting. I think we are hitting our stride.”