AWC set to host district tournament
Starting pitching key for Mats’ hopes to reach NJCAA World Series
It has been 21 years since the Arizona Western baseball team has reached the District Tournament, and now the Matadors get a chance to clinch a spot in the NJCAA Baseball World Series on their home field.
The path to this point came through two series wins in the region playoffs; first against Cochise, then against Central Arizona last weekend. The Matadors beat Central, 7-6, in Game 3 of three-game series to earn the region title.
“Nobody can ever take that region championship away from us, but we feel we’re not finished,” AWC coach Drew Keehn said. “We want to try to keep this going and keep capitalizing on a positive season.”
The Western District consists of three regions: Region 1 (Arizona), Region 9 (Colorado east of the Continental Divide, Eastern Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming), and Region 18 (Colorado west of the Continental Divide, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Western Montana and Utah).
The teams making up the four-team, double-elimination tournament are AWC, Central Arizona (qualified as the second team from the hosting region), Trinidad State (Region 9 champ) and the College of Southern Nevada (Region 18 champ).
The District Tournament’s hosting duties rotate each year, and 2017 pegged the Arizona champ,
3 p.m. today at AWC
meaning the games this weekend will be played at Walt Kammann Field in Yuma.
“I love this field,” freshman starting pitcher Irving Martin said. “I feel like this is the best mound in the conference we play in. We’re pretty tough here to beat at home. I’m glad we’re back here. I don’t want to go back to Central (Arizona College). … Hopefully, we’ll win the tournament here at home. It’ll be more fun dogpiling here.”
Martin is part of a trio of starters that will look to continue a dominant stretch of performances in the postseason so far. After a 13-3 loss to open the region semifinals against Cochise, Martin, Jayden Murray and Eric Ligda have combined to throw 42 innings (of 44 total) with an earned run average of 1.50 and 33 strikeouts in the past five games.
“It’s been huge,” Keehn said. “They’ve been carrying the load for us. I would say (they’re) one of the major reasons we have the chance to play in districts.”
It’s been a trend all season with this rotation. Ligda (11-4 record, 1.97 ERA, 83 strikeouts), Martin (8-3,