Jordan Leandre is a student journalist at Arizona State University assigned to cover Arcadia High School for AZPreps365.com

Arcadia High School’s baseball team had a tough home debut in the Adam Donnenfield Tournament, a preseason invitational. The game was called after five innings due to the mercy rule, with the Titans falling to Perry High School 13-1.

Titans’ starting pitching Quinn Carrier got two quick outs in the first inning, but his day lasted only three more outs. The junior right-hander didn’t make it out of the second inning, allowing seven runs –– two earned –– while walking four and striking out two. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first, but walks, wild pitches, and errors let the second inning spiral. The Titans were down 7-0 before their second trip to the plate.

“We made a physical error and compounded that with another physical error,” Matt Sugarman, head coach of Arcadia, said. “We let that get us down.”

After Carrier was lifted in the second inning, senior Jordan Rayda came in and got the Titans through the fourth inning without having to make another pitching change.

“[Jordan and I] talked about how he needed to locate his secondary pitches and get them off of his fastball,” Sugarman said. “That’s what really knocked out [Carrier]; his inability to locate his breaking stuff.”

Rayda’s day also featured one strikeout, five hits and five earned runs. However, the five runs were not indicative of how he pitched,  as they all came on two swings of the bat from Perry right fielder Stephen Hernandez.

“I just wanted to do my job,” Rayda said of his efforts in relief.

On the Pumas’ side, it was a big day for Hernandez, a left-handed power-hitting senior.  He went 4-for-5, hit two home runs, and drove in eight of the team’s 13 runs.

“When we play well like this, it kind of carries everyone’s bats over,” Hernandez said. “For me, today was just my day.”

The Titans saw some offense materialize in the middle innings, but the fatal blow was Hernandez’s fourth-inning grand slam. By the time he added another RBI on a ringing single in the top of the fifth, the game had long since been in Perry’s control.

“Our pregame and our bus ride we were all quiet –– just kind of locking in,” Hernandez said. “I kind of felt the energy just build up off that. Once we got off the bus…we just turned it up and had fun.”

The team faced a quick turnaround –– a 10 a.m. Saturday contest that  ended in a 2-0 defeat. The Titans played a much closer one against the Mountain Lions of Mountain Ridge High School. The Mountain Lions went 17-5 last season and won the 6A Desert Valley division, so holding them to just two runs is an impressive feat.

Nate Holloran pitched Saturday’s game for the Titans, going six innings and allowing just two runs –– both in the first inning –– on three hits while striking out five.

Next up for Arcadia is their official season opener on Tuesday at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale at 3:45 p.m.