When the remnants of last weekend’s weather finally dried out at Opus Field,  the Brophy Broncos were ready to play in their first non-conference home game Tuesday night.

The Broncos (2-1) defeated the Valley Vista Monsoons (2-1), 9-3.

The Broncos knew coming into this game that they needed to bounce back offensively after barely beating the O’Connor Eagles in eight innings the day before, 4-3. Advice given by Brophy head coach Josh Garcia before the game really stuck with senior Mason Kokodynski.

“He told the top five hitters in the lineup to stop trying to do too much,” said Kokodynski. “You guys got a whole group of hitters ready to take care of business.”

After sophomore pitcher Josiah Estrella was able to get out of the first half of the inning, Kokodynski came up to the plate with runners on first and second with no score. When Kokodynski was brought to a 2-2 count, he was ready to put the ball in play. He wasn’t expecting to hit it out of the park.

“I was just trying to do my job with the runner on second,” said Kokodynski. “I just happened to catch it out front and send it over the fence.”

The Broncos ended up rallying for six runs behind Kokodynski’s three-run home run, knocking Monsoons starting pitcher Cameron Porter out before the end of the inning.

Garcia couldn’t have been more proud with how the Broncos started out of the gate.

“They did a pretty good job at controlling the strike zone, taking walks, and swinging at good pitches,” Garcia said.

The Monsoons knew that there was plenty of game left to play. Monsoons head coach Enrique Cotto kept reminding his guys that it was only the first inning.

“We can’t try to allow that momentum to stay on their side,”  Cotto said.

The Monsoons responded in the next half inning with three runs, two of them behind the bat of Grady White.

“It just gave us that boost and put us back in the ballgame,” Cotto said.

After the Broncos scored three more runs in both the second and third innings, the offense on both teams remained silent for the rest of the game.

The defensive play began to shine, especially for the Broncos. When the Monsoons ended up having errors defensively, the Broncos only allowed two runners after the second inning.

After learning from last year’s mistakes, Garcia knew that the Broncos needed to revamp their structure in how they teach defensive play.

“We pay a lot more attention on playing clean defense like skill work with our infielders,” Garcia said.

Kokodynski knows that the responsibility shouldn’t solely be on the pitcher, and that every guy on the field needs to be ready to perform.

“The pitchers need to be confident that we are going to have their back,”  Kokodynski said.

That confidence showed in senior Will Schouten, as he stepped in for the Broncos as Estrella was pulled after the fourth inning. For someone who was cut last year, Schouten was ready for his varsity debut.

“I was feeling really confident. I had command in the bullpen, and once I got out on the field I just laid it all out there,” Schouten said.

Schouten struck out four, and didn’t allow a hit in his two innings of relief.

“Will did an outstanding job coming in and throwing strikes,” Garcia said.

Though it is still the beginning stages of the season, and it is nice to get the win, Garcia knows that the Broncos still need to work on things to continue to get better.

“I think our baserunning is hurting us a little bit," he said. "We made a lot of outs on the bases.” 

Kokodynski was able to see the boost of confidence within his teammates, and he believes that it is going to help them maintain their aggressive mentality each game.

“I think tonight kind of showed really something from within,” Kokodynski said. “Our mentality is to just take it to them.”

The Broncos will head to Glendale this Thursday to face the Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions. First pitch will be at 6 p.m.