MAYER — The last time Bagdad wasn’t in the conversation for a 1A baseball state championship, you’d have to go back more than a decade ago when the Sultans failed to make the playoffs in 2012.

That was coach Dalton Mills’ fourth year on the job, but ever since then, Bagdad has been in the mix, including seven-straight 1A state semifinals appearances and a 2018 title.

The No. 1-ranked Sultans (15-0-1, 7-0 1A West) have been to three of the last four state championship games, only to come up short in all three. The last a 13-3 loss to Hayden in the title game a season ago.

But this year, junior catcher Aaron Landers, who leads the team with a .564 average, believes his club is a title contender this spring.

“I’d say we have some good odds, but we’re going to go one game at a time,” Landers said, adding that the undefeated Sultans faced some adversity by dealing with injuries early on, not to mention a come-from-behind extra-inning 3-2 victory against Anthem Prep. in late March.

“Our game against Anthem Prep. We battled adversity, and we came back and pulled off the win in the 10th inning,” Landers said. “We’re looking good so far, our hitting is coming around. We’re playing one game at a time. Just looking onto the next after one opponent, trying to get the job done.”

Ace Shane Hooper (4-0), who sports a 0.00 ERA in 24-1/3 innings pitched this year and has 40 strikeouts compared to only nine walks, stated a 1A title is all he dreams about.

“Ever since my freshman year, I’ve always wanted the title. We’ve had good odds all the way up till now. This year, our lineup is looking the most stacked. Our pitching rotation is looking good,” Hooper said. “A few of the top teams we face, they lost some good players we were kind of scared of last year that helped them beat us.”

Hooper added that as the team makes its way down the final stretch of games this season, it will be important to stay humble.

“Our weakness is not getting too confident. We haven’t lost any games, but anything can happen really. Our ego might be our weakness,” Hooper said.

And since it was 54 years between state titles from a club in one of northern Arizona’s most famous mining towns (1964 and 2018), Mills hopes the boys in blue won’t have to wait another five decades for another chance at hoisting the trophy.

“We’re in a pretty good spot. We had some guys start the season on the injured list, so we had some guys step up. We developed some arms, and I think we might be deeper because of that,” Mills said. “So, if we can keep going, become more well-oiled, and fine tune some things, I like our chances.”

Mills pointed to the Williams (No. 2 ranking) contest to end the regular season on April 23, plus the chances of seeing Hayden again in the playoffs, or potentially Desert Christian, which hasn’t lost a power point game so far this season.

“We just have to be hot at the end, get things going the right way,” Mill said, adding that Bagdad has a “Blue Collar” mentality being from a mining town.

“We do play with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. Our kids have played together for a while. Our juniors and seniors have played travel ball since they were 9, so they’re used to playing bigger schools,” Mill said. “We have a tight-knit group, so hopefully that works with our work ethic.”

UP NEXT

After blanking Mayer 16-0 last week, the Sultans head to Joseph City on Tuesday, April 9. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.

Brian M. Bergner Jr. has covered professional, collegiate and high school sports for more than 20 years. Follow him on Twitter @AzPreps365Brian. Have a story idea? Email Brian at bbergner@azpreps365.com.