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Amped MP baseball upsets Basha in first round
Comments 0 | Recommend 0C.J. Cron crushed the third pitch he saw, pumped his fist and then pointed toward his dugout.
"Let's go," he roared.
Cron's two-run homer in the top of the first set the tone as a pumped up No. 14 Mountain Pointe crushed No. 3 Chandler Basha, 15-4, in the first round of the Class 5A-Division I state tournament Saturday afternoon.
"The energy was amazing today," Cron said afterwards. "It really propelled us to swing the bats like we did."
MP would extend its lead to 5-0 before Basha cut it to 5-3, but the Pride pushed another five runs across over the next two innings to make it to 10-3.
Cron then added another two-run shot in the top of the seventh. He finished 3-for-4 with five RBIs.
"(Basha) did a good job battling back, but C.J. Cron had an unbelievable day," said MP coach Brandon Buck.
Eric Klem also homered for the Pride, finishing with four RBIs. But he wasn't even the best Klem on the field Saturday afternoon.
That'd be his younger brother, Ryan, the junior ace of the team who fanned 10 batters and didn't issue a single walk.
Ryan Klem made one mistake - a pitch left over the plate that turned into a three-run home run in the third - but was near flawless otherwise.
"He was unbelievable," Cron said. "He hit his spots very well. He just pitched amazing today."
Added Buck: "We wanted to set the tone early. We knew that if we could get up - when Ryan's on, he's pretty difficult to score runs against."
After closing the regular season with a disappointing loss to rival Desert Vista, Buck loosened up practice this week, allowing his players to focus on having fun.
Did it ever work. Eight different batters had hits for the Pride, and all but one - freshman pinch hitter Kevin Cron, CJ's younger brother - reached base.
"The postseason's going to bring energy for everyone," Buck said. "It was something that we needed to do a little bit better job of.
"It was fun man, we come out and jump on them the way we did - that's just exciting."
The Pride (18-13) move on to play No. 6 Glendale Mountain Ridge at Papago Baseball Complex Tuesday night at 7.
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