Jorge Guajardo is an ASU Cronkite Journalism student assigned to cover Corona del Sol High School for AZPreps365.com

GOODYEAR — The box score will tell you Corona del Sol beat Millennium 5-1 on Tuesday. It won’t show you exactly how the Aztecs did it, but it will show how much of it ran through senior Kellan Tom.

Tom turned in a true two-way performance, going 2-for-3 with a double, a home run and three RBIs while also pitching 6 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts to lead Corona del Sol to a bounce-back win.

“There's a lot of good players in this state, but he's right up there with probably the top five players in the state with what he can do on the mound,” Corona del Sol coach Dave Webb said. “He's a position player. He just goes out there and pitches, and he learned to pitch this year. And that's what he can do.”

Tom’s biggest moment came at the plate early in the first inning where his three-run home run broke the game open and gave the Aztecs separation against a Millennium team that hung around early behind sophomore left-hander Chase Fillman.

But the tone of the game was set by Corona del Sol’s collective approach at the plate.

“We settled in, had a good practice yesterday, had a great kind of team talk about who we really are. They battled. It was a team win today,”  Webb said.

“You know, you look at the stats, and there's a lot of times we got down, two outs right away, but then we fought back, got a hit, and even scored a run after that with two outs. And that really takes its toll on the opposing pitcher.”

Corona del Sol consistently extended at-bats, driving up pitch counts and forcing Millennium into high-leverage situations.

“That was definitely our goal,” Webb said. “We work incessantly on two-strike hitting. I want my guys to hate striking out. Absolutely hate it.” 

“So, we're going to take a swing and get our ‘A’ swing off of the first two swings, and then when we get two strikes, it's a team swing,” Webb said.

One of those at-bats helped seal the game for the Aztecs.

“Parker Williams in the fourth or fifth inning had about an eight-pitch at-bat and then walked, and that really helped us when Fillman’s pitch count was starting to get up,” Webb said. “That really kind of drove him out.” 

Behind Tom’s steady presence on the mound and timely power at the plate, the Aztecs controlled the late innings and closed out the win.

Still, the postgame tone stayed measured with region play underway for Corona del Sol.

“Man, our region is a bloodbath. It is a tough region,”  Webb said. “And that's a very good team. That's a sophomore that threw today, that lefty, he's good. He was tough, but there are a lot of tough teams in this region, so we can't get too happy about this. We play them again on Thursday, and we just have to keep plugging away.”

Double Plays

Millennium grounded out into four double plays in Tuesday’s game. A couple of them came with multiple runners on and only  one out.

Several times, Tom was able to pitch out of jams, but Millennium’s approach may have been flawed.

“It comes down to competitiveness,” Millennium coach James McDonald said. “You've got to win the battle. We don't win enough battles, and sometimes that's just what it comes down to. We're not being tough enough. We're not winning those battles. 

“Other guys go up there; they're tough,” McDonald said. “They won a little bit more. And you can see it out there. Now, we've got to start wanting a little more and just be a little tougher. If we do that, I think we'll win more battles.”

The brutal double plays killed momentum and buried the Tigers' offensive production, leaving their run total at only one.

“They need to look in the mirror and find out who they really are,” McDonald said. “I think they need to show up and play Millennium Tiger baseball. I think we're falling away from that.

"We're not playing with grit; we're not playing with a good two-strike approach. We're not doing disciplined things, and I think we really need to look in the mirror and figure it out.”

Two-way star on the rise

Senior first baseman Kellan Tom, an Arizona State commit, led the way with a dominant two-way performance that had his teammates rallying behind him all game.

“It’s awesome. That's what we preach, energy,” Tom said. “The energy our dugout has been amazing this whole year. I know it’s contributed to our success.”

As for setting the tone early, Tom alluded to routine and practice as an early formula for success.

“I wouldn't say we really picked up on anything; we just kind of do what we always do,” Tom said. “We practice patience like that every day, so it was just a result of all the work we put in.”

Up next

Corona del Sol (11-4-1, 2-1) hosts the Millennium Tigers (10-7, 0-3) for another regular-season matchup on Thursday at 3:45 p.m.