Adam Schwager is a Master’s student at ASU Cronkite School of Journalism

CHANDLER — With the tying run on third and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Basha's Jordan Vigil had a chance to save the Bears from their most disappointing loss of their season on Thursday afternoon in front of the home crowd.

On the 2-2 pitch, Vigil swung and missed at the outside fastball from Tolleson Union pitcher Tito Castillo. Game over. Bears drop to 7-5. 

Basha entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 3-1. Carter Boone led off with a single up the middle, before Castillo drilled Max Madrid in the shoulder on the next pitch to put the tying run at first.

Head coach Jim Schilling then signaled for Drew Douglas, batting in the second spot in the lineup, to lay down a bunt. The Long Beach State commit obliged, dropping a successful bunt and putting both baserunner in scoring position. 

“(I) was just trying to get the tying run on base with two really good hitters up,” Schilling said. “One swing ties the game and we feel if we could’ve gotten it to extra innings we could’ve won the game.”

Instead, Castillo induced an RBI groundout from Tyler Clementz, then struck out Vigil, Basha's catcher, to secure the complete-game victory. The starter allowed only six hits and two earned runs in his seven innings. Basha hitters commented on how Castillo was exceptional at jamming them on the inside part of the plate.

Bear starter Dallin Harrison matched Castillo for the first half of the game. Both pitchers threw efficient, scoreless games through four innings. 

In the fifth inning, the Wolverines were able to manufacture a run against Harrison. After the San Diego commit walked the seven-hitter Angel Lizarraga, a wild pitch and sacrifice bunt advanced him to third with two outs. Leadoff hitter Isaac Lizzaraga found the gap  between Basha third baseman Landon Zaborowski and shortstop Drew Douglas to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Basha responded with a one-out RBI triple from the only hot bat in its lineup, that of right fielder Madrid. There he would be stranded. The hero in the Bears’ upset over Hamilton a week ago with his five-RBI performance, Madrid went 2-for-3 Thursday with an RBI. 

Tolleson opened the sixth inning with three straight infield hits to load the bases. Wolves first baseman and five-hole hitter Kevin Castro hit a sacrifice fly to right field as Tolleson took a 2-1 lead. 

Harrison was chased from the game after walking the next batter to reload the bases. Basha brought Carter Boone on in relief and he preserved the one-run lead by generating a pop-up and a strikeout to end the inning. Harrison finished the game with 5.1 innings pitched, five strikeouts, five hits and two earned runs.

In the bottom of the inning the Bears looked poised to strike, finding themselves with runners on the corners and one out. However, Basha couldn’t get the lead runner home on a suicide squeeze attempt, as pinch runner Nate Nichols was thrown out at the plate on a controversial call.

“I think he was safe at home,” Schilling said. “But that’s the breaks of baseball. Things aren’t going our way right now.”

In the top of the seventh Tolleson added a crucial insurance run. Castillo, batting third in the lineup, helped his own cause with a two-out RBI double to the right-center gap. 

“(That hit) was big,” Castillo said. “Really helped me out in that last inning to get that dub 3-2.”

That run gave Castillo more breathing room to come out and complete the game he started, breathing room he desperately needed. With the win, Castillo improved his season record to 3-2 and lowered his ERA to 3.03.

“I told somebody today we're either gonna win 2-1, or we're gonna lose 11-0,” Tolleson Union head coach Scott Richardson said. “That's just kind of how we are with our guy on the mound.”

The Bears, who’ve now dropped five of their last six, have been struggling to put together an offense, averaging 2.5 runs a game over that same stretch. 

“We gotta find ourselves a little bit,” Schilling said. “We just got to get back to being scrappy ballplayers not worrying about other things. Just get back to being super-ultra-competitive in the box. Once we can figure out how to do that I think our offense will come back.”

The Bears (7-5, 1-3) will be back at home Tuesday to face the Maricopa Rams at 3:45 p.m. Tolleson Union (7-4, 3-2) will look to continue their winning ways on Friday at 6:00 p.m. as they host 6A Southwest rival Westview.