Brophy Prep got off to a slow start this baseball season, forcing the Broncos to focus and turn it up a notch in recent weeks. They're responding. 

Senior Ryan Castellani continued his outstanding pitching on Tuesday afternoon, tossing a four-hitter and outdueling Hamilton's Kent Hasler, 3-1, in a Division I game at Hamilton that snapped a six-game winning streak for the Huskies.

Castellani, who entered the game four consecutive wins including three shutouts, got better as the game progressed. His teammates secured a 1-0 lead for him in the second and when Hamillton tied the game in the third at 1 on a ground out,  they answered again. Cleanup hitter Connor Messman answered, that is.

Messman, who singled and scored Brophy's first run in the second, cranked a first-pitch, no-doubter to left  in the fourth for a 2-1 lead. Castellani took over from there. He allowed one hit and one walk over the final four frames and finished with six strikeouts -- five in the last three innings. Brophy added an extra run in the fifth, using a single by Christian Maggi and an RBI double from Ryan Grotjohn.

"(Castellani) was reall good," Hamilton coach Mike Woods said. "He was hitting the black. Throws a 3-2 change to our No. 9 hitter for a strikeout. That's not fair.... They executed everything today. You have to tip your cap to them."

Hasler wasn't too shabby for Hamilton (15-4 overall, 8-2 power-rankikng games). The 5-foot-10  junior, surrendered six hits, walked two and fanned nine. Four of the hits he allowed were first-pitch knocks.

"He got too much of the plate on two pitches to Messman," Woods said. "Other than that, he was great, too."

The win was huge for Brophy, which improved to 13-7 overall and 8-4 in power-ranking games. Coach Tom Succow's club opened the season 1-4 in its first five power-ranking games. The Broncos have won seven in a row since and are knocking on the door of the top 10 in D-I power-rankings.

"This is the first time we've won a game here (at Hamilton)," Succow said. "Same thing earlier at Mountain Pointe (a 3-0 win behind Castellani's shoutout pitching). We needed a good game from Ryan. He got some big strikeouts late, and we played good defense."

Brophy isn't  taking anything for granted, despite its present winning streak. There's too much left in front of them.

"This was big for us," Succow said. "But we still have six games left. Two this week with St. Mary's, then Desert Vista and two back-to-back with Chaparral. Those are  teams ahead of us in the rankings."