GOODYEAR — When Pusch Ridge Christian’s baseball team needed him most, pitcher Mike Doty answered the call.
The senior tossed a shutout in the Division IV state semifinals at Goodyear Ballpark and the Lions beat No. 3 San Manuel 3-0. Doty held the Miners to just two hits.
“He (Doty) was the MVP of this game,” Pusch Ridge Christian coach Mark Frithsen said. “He was obviously on, shutting them down. The other team can’t win if you put up a zero on the board, and that’s what he did for us today.”
The No. 2 Lions (26-4) will carry a 10-game winning streak into today’s state championship game against top-seeded Desert Christian at 11 a.m. at Goodyear Ballpark.
It will be the Lions’ second trip to a state final, the first was in 2009.
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Doty, who struck out sevenand walked one, allowed only four base runners, and just one after the third inning. It was his fourth shutout of the season.
“My curveball was working great today, I got a lot of people to chase with that,” said Doty (7-2). “I just tried to pitch to contact.”
The Lions pounced early after junior Alan Ramirez led off the game with a walk. Ramirez stole second base then Doty drove an RBI double to center field.
Two batters later, senior Phillip Tanner lined one past a diving second baseman to bring home Doty.
Pusch Ridge Christian added an unearned run in the fifth.
San Manuel’s starting pitcher Anthony Garcia settled down after the first inning, recovering to toss seven innings of three-hit ball. Garcia, a senior captain, fanned eight.
“Garcia pitched great, he let the two runs slip away in the first,” San Manuel coach Steve Elmore said. “We just didn’t have the timely hitting to back him up. Our bats didn’t come through.”
Andrews leads Eagles back to title game
Desert Christian junior Andrew Edwards pitched a near perfect game to bring his team 21 outs closer to repeating as state champions.
The combination of the Eagles collecting 10 hits and Edwards allowing just two hits proved to be enough as they topped No. 4 Scottsdale Prep 11-1 for a six-inning mercy-rule win in the other Division IV semifinal game.
“We came into this season with a bull’s-eye on our backs,” coach Grant Hopkins said. “Our guys relish it. They’ve embraced it.”
Sophomore Zach Rosson went 2 for 2 with a double and three RBIs, including the game-clinching run.
Desert Christian (28-2) will go for its 22nd straight win today against Pusch Ridge, a team it beat twice in the regular season.
“We know them well, they know us well,” coach Grant Hopkins said. “We knew at the beginning of the season it would be us and them.”
Contact reporter Chuck Constantino at cconstantino@tucson.com or 954-0859. On Twitter: @CConstan3 or @azprepstar
