AWC rides hot bats to Region I title
Matadors have season-high 22 hits and five home runs in elimination game
The Arizona Western College baseball team can celebrate for at least a few days after winning a Regional title on Saturday af- ternoon.
The Matadors started the game by hitting and they didn’t stop as they finished with a season-high 22 hits in a 16-5 win over South Mountain (46-15).
AWC was able to bounce back from a heart-breaking loss in extra innings of game two a day earlier.
47-14 overall 46-15 overall
The Mats (47-14) hit it out of their memory early with five home runs in the game.
The middle of the lineup went to work as it has all season. Sean Roby and Spencer Packard started off the hitting the ball all over the field. In the first Roby had a double followed by a single from Packard to knock him in to go up 1-0.
Roby finished with three RBIs and Packard had four in the game. Roby was selection Region I MVP after having 10 RBIs during the three-game series.
Roby hit his 20th home run of the season in the third and Packard directly followed that with a solo shot, which was his eighth of the season.
Justin Greene hit another home run for the team in the top of the sixth to go up 6-4. The Mats did more damage in the top of the seventh with two RBIs from Zach Huffins, and one from Packard and Manny Perez to go ahead 11-4.
Yodelvy Menendez homered in the eighth, which was his sixth of the season, and Greene homered again in the ninth for his 10th of the year.
Zach Hansen (5-1) got the win in relief. He allowed one run over five innings on the mound.
AWC finishes the season 4-3 against South Mountain. South Mountain went into the postseason with the top seed in the Region.
This is the second Region Title in a row for AWC and this is the first time since 1996 that it happened. The 47 wins is also a school record.
AWC will move on to the West District Playoffs. The games will begin on Thursday and they will play teams from Region 18 (and Trinidad State (Region 9 winner from Trinidad, Co.).
The games will be played at the site of the Region 18 winners.