It wasn't a strike. But it was squarely in Sahuarita star catcher Brandon Crim's power zone.
Crim delivered a towering two-run home run on a pitch that nearly drew the dirt before connecting with the fat of his bat — his second homer of the day — to pace a six-run fifth inning that led to a 16-2 mercy-rule-shortened win over host Santa Rita.
"It was a low, too-low fastball," said Crim, a senior and the No. 3 hitter in the Mustangs' lineup. "It was like a 9-iron shot. I had to dig it up. It worked."
Crim, who Sahuarita coach Sam Gelardi called the most underrated catcher in Southern Arizona, finished with five RBIs to add to the pair of long balls.
And the rest of the offense wasn't far behind as Sahuarita didn't wait long to start the onslaught.
Leadoff man Tony Hilderbrand opened the game with a triple before Sam Gelardi, the coach's son, came through with a run-scoring single. Then Crim struck for the first time, delivering a two-run homer to make it 3-0 after three batters.
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"That first one was just a pitch on the outside part" of the plate, said Crim. "I've been working on hitting the ball the other way on that. I'm finally getting it down. Get the bat out there, and let it do the work."
Sahuarita (16-5, 7-1) tacked on two more in the second, including a run-scoring single from Hilderbrand, before blowing the game wide open in the third as Santa Rita (2-17, 0-6) was never able to put a serious dent into the deficit.
Shortstop Travis Salisbury was hit by a pitch to open the third before Dax Hall walked. A double steal advanced both runners, setting up Ryan Moriarty, the starting pitcher, for a two-RBI double. An infield single and a walk loaded the bases for Crim, who came through again, but in less dramatic fashion, with a sacrifice fly. Leo Sierra, a 6-foot-4-inch, 245-pound first baseman who has committed to Eastern Arizona, capped the inning with a two-RBI single for a 10-0 lead.
With a 10-2 advantage entering the fifth, the Sahuarita offense was able to end the game early. Hilderbrand singled to open the inning before Crim unloaded his second round tripper. The next three Mustangs reached by walk, error and walk, respectively, including an overthrow of the first baseman that plated two runs. Hall finished the scoring with a two-run homer of his own, his fifth of the year.
"The object is to get those region wins in as fast a way possible," said the elder Gelardi, whose team has scored in double digits in its last three contests. "We want to keep scoring runs until the game is called. That is something we've done consistently is find ways to score runs."
