Vikings baseball ends season at state semifinals; Ethan Johnson is Coach of the Year

Vikings fall to Bagdad 4-3 in close game at 1A State semifinals in Tempe; St. David takes 1A title, 13-3

TEMPE, Ariz. — The Williams Vikings baseball team’s stellar season was stopped short at the 1A State semifinals where the team faced Bagdad and came up short.

“It was a tough way to end the season,” Williams High School Coach Ethan Johnson said after his team’s 4-3 loss to Bagdad in Tempe May 12. “We ran into the error bug late, and just mishandled the ball. We’re scrappy, and have a lot of grit and determination.”

The Vikings amassed four errors in the game. The first came in the first inning, when Bagdad scored on an inside the park home run. In the fourth inning, the error bug bit again in the form of three outfield errors, which enabled Bagdad to score three runs and take a 4-0 lead.

Williams finally scored in the fifth inning and added single runs in the last two innings for the final score of 4-3.

Freshman Mario Pedraza started on the mound and pitched the first five innings. He faced 29 batters, struck out six, had no earned runs and allowed nine hits. Tyler Jensen came on in relief for the final two innings. He held Bagdad to no hits, and no walks.

“We’ll be back,” Johnson said. “We have a very talented junior class to build on next year. We’ll also have three returning freshman, and will be playing ball this summer.”

The awards from the 1A North Region have been announced. Johnson was named Coach of the Year for the 1A North Region. Tyler Jensen received Offensive Player of the Year and Danny Siegfried was selected as Defensive Player of the Year.

Other team members named to the first team included JP Echeveria, Raymond Gonzalez, Kevin Nunez, Mario Pedraza, Jace Maebe and Romenn Pacheco.