Brevin Monroe is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Desert Mountain Wolves are back in the win column as the baseball team defeated the Arcadia Titans 11-1 in five innings on Friday at Desert Mountain High School.

The Wolves bounced back after a 6-2 loss to Centennial on Thursday behind a strong performance from the offense and exceptional pitching by both starter Cooper Weeks and reliever Sean Strittmatter. The latter was throwing his first varsity innings of the season.

“It was good to put the runs up after a tough loss yesterday,” Wolves head coach Ryan Dyer said.

The game began with a scoreless inning from the Titans. Leading off for the Wolves was Strittmatter who smacked a double to deep center field, the first of his two hits. 

An error by Arcadia junior shortstop Quinn Carrier moved runners to second and third and set up senior first baseman Hank Smith, who hit a sacrifice fly to left, breaking the tie. Right fielder Cooper McKee then grounded out to short, but knocked in the second run.

From there, Titans sophomore starter Garon Dreier settled in, minimizing the damage by the Desert Mountain offense and even recording a scoreless second inning. For the Wolves, Weeks gave up a leadoff single in the second before putting them down 1-2-3.

The third inning saw Weeks record two outs before giving up a hit to junior third baseman Aneas Sandoval, his second of the game. He then struck out the cleanup man and finished with a line of three innings pitched, four hits, three strikeouts and no earned runs.

Smith led off the bottom of the third with a double to the gap for his second hit and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly to right by junior left fielder Kyle Pettigrew.

Dreier then found himself in a two-out jam with the bases loaded, but managed to escape with only the one run after striking out Wolves catcher Grant Madrid-Murray.

Strittmatter took over on the mound in the fourth inning and gave up a leadoff single to Titans left fielder, Andre Valdez,  before recording three straight outs including his first strikeout of the season. 

At the plate, Strittmatter led off the next inning with a walk, helping his own cause. Then senior second baseman Leo Sarnataro hit a double, putting runners on second and third for Smith, who picked up his second hit and third RBI with a single that fell in front of the Arcadia left fielder and gave Desert Mountain a 5-0 lead. He later scored on a groundout to first by Pettigrew.

“As a senior, I find myself in a leadership role and when guys get on base in front of me it’s my job to get them in and to get on myself,” Smith said.

On the mound, Strittmatter picked up where he left off, recording the first two outs of the fifth before a walk to senior second baseman Jett Manuelito. A throwing error by the Wolves third baseman allowed the only run of the game to score for the Titans.

Strittmatter recorded the next out finishing with a final line of two innings pitched, one hit, one walk, one strikeout  and one unearned run. He also had a great night at the plate where he reached base in all three plate appearances.

“It was my first time pitching this year, and it was pretty exciting,” Strittmatter said “But going forward my goal is to do my best to help the team win.”

Dyer had high praise for Strittmatter after his performance.

“The most important thing about Sean Strittmatter is that he came into this season wanting to earn a spot and be a leader on this team,” Dyer said. “He started off slow, and everybody believed in him. He started believing in himself. And without a doubt he has been the biggest surprise this year in 5A baseball and nobody knows it. I’m very proud of him.”

Sean Strittmatter draws a walk against the Arcadia Titans April 8. He reached base in all three plate appearances and pitched two innings. (Photo by Brevin Monroe/AZPreps365)

The bottom of the fifth was filled with pitching struggles for Arcadia as they struggled to find the zone, loading the bases with walks, the vast majority of them coming around to score. The final run came on a game-ending walk that gave Desert Mountain an 11-1 win. 

The victory marked the second time this week the Wolves defeated the Titans via the 10-run rule as they won 14-2 in five innings on Tuesday, April 5.

Up next for the Wolves is a road game against the Casteel Colts on Monday afternoon. The Titans will host Paradise Valley on Monday night.