Cayden Kubler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Student assigned to cover Marcos de Niza High School for AZPreps365.com.

Marcos de Niza baseball started its 2024 season with back-to-back regular-season wins, hopeful it was a sign things would turn around after consecutive losing seasons.

The Padres opened their year with four tournament games but went winless in the opening stretch. After that rough start, Marcos bounced back with big wins on the road against Coronado and Tempe. The Padres bats have been hot to start regular season play, outscoring both high schools by 32 runs combined. With two consecutive wins, Marcos sits at 7-16 midway through its season. 

“We’re super young, we lost a lot of seniors last year, but we’re super tight and are a tight-knit group,” said senior infielder JP McIntyre. 

Marcos last season finished 10-15-1 after a rough end to the season. The Padres had a rocky initial start to the year losing its first three tournament games. But in their next six, they won five games and recorded one tie. In the heart of the season and down the stretch the Padres struggled to get in the win column losing 12 of its final 16 games. They also went winless in their final seven giving them a losing record for the second straight season. 

“Last year doesn’t matter anymore, last year is old stuff, we are a new team, we got new boys, we got new youngins in here, go show out and go do your thing,” said Marcos de Niza head coach Matt Courtney on how the team finished its season last year. 

“They worked their tails off, we’re a young team, I didn’t know we were going to have today. They played against one of the biggest schools in the state and we came out and battled,” said Courtney on how his team plans to respond the rest of the season. 

The Padres haven’t made the playoffs since 2021 when they were 11-9, their season ending in the first round to Tucson Salpointe Catholic. That loss snapped a four-game win streak that was the final push to make the postseason. 

In the last two seasons for the Padres, end-of-season losing streaks have prevented them from making the playoffs. This year Marcos will play three out of their final four at home to help its postseason push. 

“We have to keep going strong, we play all seven we’re going to win," said junior pitcher Izayiah Abril. "We can’t just give up in the middle of the game."