Arrowhead Little League in Glendale Arizona: Major All-Stars

Arrowhead vs Southern California Scoreboard:

Arrowhead vs Northern California Scoreboard:

Arrowhead vs Hawaii Scoreboard:

Friday night the Arrowhead Majors All-Star team defeated Canyon Del Oro - who had given them their only defeat in the 2009 post-season - by the score of 12-2.  Details coming soon - or - watch them again on Cox 7 Saturday 8/1 at 2 pm, and Sunday at 4 pm - www.cox7.com

You can read about our team at the following AZCentral.com link.  There will also be an EXTENSIVE AZ Republic artical this week about the team, parents and coaches.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/articles/2009/07/31/20090731spt-azlittleleague.html

Next Up: Western Regional Tournament at Houghton Stadium in San Bernadino California starting Friday, Aug 7.

Pool Games:

Friday 8/7 vs Hawaii @ 4:00pm
Saturday 8/8 vs Northern Cal @ 12:30pm
Monday 8/10 vs Southern Cal @ 7:30pm
Wednesday 8/12 vs Nevada @ 7:30pm

Arrowhead's Major All-Stars won the State championship semi-final game over previously undefeated Yuma, 11-1, in a run rule shortened 5 inning game on Wednesday night.
It was a team effort with all 13 boys contributing.
 
The big story had to be the performance of Travis Ward, on the mound and at the plate. He pitched a complete game, only allowing a solo home run, striking out 10 in 5 innings. It was another dominant performance by "The Big Horse". At the dish, he banged out 3 hits, including the game ending run in the bottom of the 5th (scored by Connor Rochon, who had reached base on his second hit of the night).
 
Arrowhead had several players with multiple hit games including, Kyler "Mokie" Murphy, Cory Burk, and Connor Rochon.
 
The defense was excellent with the defensive (and momentum changing) play of the game taking place in the top of the second inning. With one out and a runner on second, Yuma hit a hard ground ball to Third baseman, Jake Christofferson (a human vacuum cleaner for Arrowhead). Jake looked the runner back and fired a strike to first baseman, Blaze Bohall to get the batter. Yuma's runner tried to test the arm of Blaze Bohall (arguably, the best first baseman in the state tournament) and "Blazer" threw a lazer to shortstop "Mokie" Murphy, who was covering third base. Mokie applied the tag, inning over, and Arrowhead was on the way to victory. Zack Humphrey and Harry Gard did another outstanding job at catcher for the victorious boys from North Glendale.
 
Arrowhead will play (undefeated in State tournament) Canyon Del Oro (CDO) of Tucson on Friday night at 7:00 at Rio Vista Park in Peoria (101/Thunderbird). Please make an effort to attend and create a huge home field advantage, and be sure to wear the "Arrowhead Black"!!!!
 
For those of you who cannot attend in person, the game will be broadcast live on Cox Sports 7 (for the first time in history of Arizona Little League baseball)

Jerry Rochon

Arrowhead goes head to head with Cactus LL and comes out victorious with a 7 - 6 win after 6 innings.

Travis A. Johnsonf
July 16th, 2009
 
PEORIA – Arrowhead’s Major All Star team won the District 2 Championship for the third consecutive year and fourth out of the last five with a hard fought 8 – 5 victory over the All Stars from Holiday Park.
 
The game started well for Arrowhead which took a 6 – 0 first inning lead only to see a furious comeback from Holiday Park who, at one time, made it a 6 – 5 game but a few clutch late hits from Arrowhead gave them the 8 – 5 lead which they would not relinquish. On to the recap…..
 
Arrowhead’s Jake Christopherson started on the hill and set Holiday Park down in order with two strikeouts and a fly out to Arrowhead right fielder Corey Burk. Like I mentioned, Arrowhead came out swinging in the bottom of the first. Kyler (Mokey) Murphy led off the inning with a sharp single to left and moved to second when Arrowhead’s Harry Gard was hit by a pitch putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Arrowhead’s Jake Christopherson then plated them both with a hard hit double. Next up was slugger Travis Ward who laced a line drive home run to left field making the score 4 – 0. After an Arrowhead strike out, Connor Rochon got things going again with an infield single. After another Arrowhead K, Zach Humphrey got an infield hit moving Brandon Jones (who was running for Connor) to second then Corey Burk plated them both with a single into right field making the score 6 – 0.
 
Christopherson struck out the first HP batter in the top of the second then escaped a jam when, with the bases loaded and only one out, Jake got a hard hit ground ball comebacker and turned a sweet 1 – 2 – 3 (pitcher, catcher, first base) double play to end the inning.
 
Arrowhead went down relatively quietly in the bottom of the second getting only a lead off single from Harry Gard before being retired without scoring.
 
An HP single and triple (with the batter who hit the triple scoring on an AH error) made the score 6 – 2 in the top of the third and chased Christopherson from the game with Arrowhead going to Tyler Watts to get out of the inning which he did without allowing any more runs. Jake’s final pitching line was good. He pitched 2+ innings giving up two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts.
 
After AH went down 1, 2, 3 in the bottom of the third HP then made things interesting getting three runs in the top of the fourth making the score 6 – 5. Tyler started on the bump beginning the fourth and pitched well giving up two runs (one earned) before giving way to Murphy with two outs in the inning and the score 6 – 4. Mokey gave up one unearned run before getting Arrowhead out of the jam. Tyler’s final line was also respectable as he pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two runs (one earned) with a strikeout.
 
Arrowhead went into the bottom of the fourth looking to get some insurance runs and increase their 6 – 5 lead and they came through when it counted. Angel Sanchez lead off the innifng by taking one for the team and being awarded first base after getting hit by a pitch. After an AH strikeout Harry moved Angel to second by drawing a walk putting runners at first and second with one out. Another Arrowhead strikeout followed bringing Jonathan Turk to the plate and he drew a walk to load the bases for Bohall. Blaze stepped up when it counted and, arguably, got the hit of the game stroking a two out single into left field scoring Sanchez and Gard and giving AH an 8 – 5 lead. What a CLUTCH two out hit from Blaze.
 
Mokey set HP down 1,2,3 in the top of the fifth and Arrowhead tried like heck to get some more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth but some great HP defense kept AH scoreless in the inning. Connor Rochon led off the bottom of the fifth by lining a ground ball up the middle but the HP second baseman made a terrific play throwing Connor out at first by an eyelash. Sawyer Treese then ripped a ground ball to the hole between shortstop and third but the HP shortstop made another terrific play getting to the ball and throwing Sawyer out at first by….. what’s smaller than an eyelash? Tyler Watts and Corey Burk followed by getting back to back two out singles but an AH strikeout ended the inning keeping the score 8 – 5.
 
Murphy came back out to pitch the 6th, and final, inning and gave off a lead off single. The next batter hit a hard ground ball to AH shortstop Jake Christopherson. Jake make the defensive play of the game as he ran to second to get the force out there and fired a strike to AH first baseman Blaze Bohall turning a HUGE double play putting AH one out away from the D2 Championship. HP wasn’t going to go down quietly though as their next batter laced a single up the middle but Mokey shook it off and got the next batter to fly out to AH right fielder Corey Burk (his name sure keeps popping up a lot in these write ups) to end the game and give Arrowhead the Championship.
 
It was another terrific night for Arrowhead Baseball as not only the Majors, but the 9/10’s and 11’s also won the District 2 Tournament sending all of them to the State Championships.
 
I’ve realized looking over my recaps that I’ve neglected to thank and congratulate the Major Coaches for the terrific job they’ve done. Coach Chris Burk, Coach Jerry Rochon, and Manager Lance Billingsley deserve a big THANK YOU from all of us for all the time they’ve given to bring the most out of the boys. They could not have done a better job and we should all be VERY thankful to have such terrific coaches!
 
The Major’s State Tourney will be played at Rio Vista so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t fill the place with AH supporters, lets make it a TRUE home field advantage! The Tournament games start on Monday July 20th with a kickoff parade to be held at the Westgate Plaza near the AZ Cardinals stadium on Sunday July 19th. For more information on the parade or anything else regarding the state tournament go to www.eteamz.com/azdistrct2 and click on the “State Tournament” link.
 
Congratulations to all the AH teams for representing out league, and our community so well. Great Job!

PEORIA – Arrowhead’s Major All Star team advanced to the Championship game of the District 2 Tournament with a hard fought 4 – 0 victory over the All Stars from Rio Vista Little League in Peoria on Tuesday night.
 
Both teams entered the semi final game with identical 4 – 0 records. Rio Vista had showed it was a terrific pitching and fielding team by only allowing five total runs in their four games while Arrowhead had showed they were an offensive powerhouse scoring 88 combined runs in their first four games.
 
With numbers like that you knew something had to give and for the first few innings it looked to be the Arrowhead offense as they were held scoreless by a terrific Rio Vista pitcher (he wore number 37 but I never got his name or I would be proud to print it here, he did a heck of a job). #37 held Arrowhead to no runs and only three hits through his 4 2/3 innings while striking out seven. Arrowhead did manage to load the bases with two out in the fifth with the score still 0 – 0 (and after #37 was removed for a relief pitcher). Connor Rochon looked to finally end the scoring drought hitting a line drive that looked to be destined to land in front of the RV left fielder but the RV shortstop made a terrific leaping catch to end the inning and keep the game scoreless.
 
Travis Ward took the ball to start the game for Arrowhead and he delivered the performance of a lifetime on the mound. Travis ended up pitching a complete game one hit shutout while fanning 11 and only walking one RV batter. Only two batters reached base against Travis and neither of them got further than first base. Travis showed that he is definitely one that can be counted on to take the bump in a big game. What a performance by T-rav.
 
Entering the top of the 6th inning with the score still 0 – 0 Arrowhead looked to blow the game open loading the bases on a Jake Christopherson single, a Sawyer Treese walk, and a walk to Blaze Bohall with no one out but with the infield in Travis Ward hit a hard ground ball at the RV shortstop who got the force out at home keeping the bases loaded with one out and the score still 0 – 0. After an Arrowhead strike out Cory Burke came to the plate with the game still scoreless and now two out and Cory delivered a clutch two out double up the middle plating Sawyer and Blaze putting Arrowhead ahead 2 – 0. Zach Humphrey then stepped to the plate looking to get some much needed insurance runs and crushed a ground rule double to left center field scoring Travis and Corey and giving Arrowhead a 4 – 0 lead heading into the bottom of the 6th inning.
 
Travis Ward then set Rio Vista down 1,2,3 in the bottom of the inning with two strike outs and a ground out to Arrowhead first baseman Blaze Bohall.
 
Though we’re all excited about the Arrowhead victory we all need to take a moment to tip our hats to the Rio Vista team. They were as good as any team I’ve seen this year and they battled to the end. It was a shame that someone had to lose...

Travis A. Johnson
July 14th, 2009.

PEORIA – Arrowhead’s Major All Star team finished up pool play with a record of 3 – 0 after defeating the All Stars from Alhambra Little League 21 – 0 in a run rule shortened (four inning) game in Peoria on Thursday night.

Offensive stars include Travis Ward who reached base all four times he was up including two home runs, four runs scored, and six RBI and Cory Burk who reached base with all five of his plate appearances with four runs scored.

On the other side of the diamond Zach Humphrey pitched a complete game (four inning) one hit shutout while racking up nine strikeouts and Brandon Jones had a terrific web gem at second base making a diving stop on a hard hit ground ball throwing out the Alhambra batter at first base.

Arrowhead begins the single elimination portion of the tournament with a quarter-final game against the All Stars from Village Meadows Monday night on field #5 at 8pm at Rio Vista Park

Travis A. Johnson
July 9th, 2009.
 

Note: Arrowhead= AH and all schedules are subject to change.  Please check the web site each afternoon.  Last minute changes will be noted on the home page, as well as the schedule below.  We will try to have all scores updated each night by midnight.

Arrowhead batted around the order twice in the first inning in route to a 27-0 win over Cactus Wren.
Travis Ward, Jonathan Turk, Tyler Watts and Jake Christofferson combined on a 1 hitter against Cactus Wren.
Blaze Bohall, Kyler "Mokie" Murphy, Jake Christofferson, Jonathan Turk, and Cory Burk each homered in the 4 inning game.
Next Game: Monday July 6^th @ Rio Vista 8:00 PM vs. Shaw Butte.

PEORIA – Arrowhead’s Major (11/12 year old) All Stars improved their District 2 Tournament record to 2 – 0 with a 27 – 5 victory over the All Stars from Shaw Butte Little League on Monday night.
 
Every single player on the team had either an RBI or a run scored in the game. Though everyone contributed, the players with the biggest stat lines from the game include Connor Rochon who reached base each of the six times he came to the plate scoring five runs and knocking in two, Kyler Murphy reached base five times while scoring four runs, Sawyer Treese had two doubles, a single, and four RBI, Tyler Watts had three hits and four RBI, Angel Sanchez hit a towering three run home run, and Blaze Bohall had four hits and four RBI.  Additionally, Harry Gard did a nice job behind the plate and Connor Rochon made a nice running catch in the outfield to end the game.

Travis A. Johnson
July 6th, 2009
Next Game: Thursday July 9^th @ Rio Vista 8:00 PM vs. Alhambra.