5A-I BB: Mtn. Pointe state champs on hit by Kipper in eighth

May 14, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Jordan Kipper was talking with his father not long ago about state championships.

His father, Bruce, the principal at Mountain Pointe High School, won one as a coach at Tempe High.

Now Jordan has one to talk about, too.

Kipper delivered his fourth hit of the game -- an RBi single in the bottom of the eighth inning -- Saturday night to give Mountain Pointe a 7-6 victory over Hamilton and give the Pride its first ever baseball championship.

"He told me it was his fourth year at Tempe when they won," Jordan Kipper said of his father's stint at Tempe. "This my fourth year. It's great to go out with one my senior year."

Kipper's hit ended an battle between two great teams, both of whom overcame deficits at one time or another during the game at Camelback Ranch Glendale Stadium.

The winning rally, produced against Hamilton reliever Parker Gallegos who took over for starter Jake Andrews, started with a single by Sam Kingery. Quinn Tucker followed intending to sacrifice but pushed a bunt past Gallegos for a hit. Scott Kingery moved both runners with a bunt adn that brought up Kipper.

Even with a base open, Hamilton pitcherd to Kipper rather than walk him and face the 27-home run bat of Kevin Cron, who had gone 0-for-3 at that point. Kipper ripped a 2-2 pitch to left to plate Kingery.

"I couldn't write it up any better than that," Kipper said of his opportunity to knock in the game winner. He finished with three singles, a triple and a 400-foot fly to center that was tracked down on a fine play by the Huskies Parker Osborne

Mountain Pointe coach Brandon Buck was glad to see his team and seniors get rewarded.

"I couldn't be more proud of this group and these seniors," Buck said. "Three of the four years we've been to two state title games and a semifinal. That's pretty good work."

A weird play in the first inning helped Mountain Pointe (28--5) score five runs on just two hits and take a 5-1 lead. With  Cron pitching and looking strong early (seven strikeouts in three innings, it appeared Mountain Pointe might cruise.

But players in the bottom half of Hamilton's lineup had other ideas. Osborne ripped a two-run homer in the fourth inning to pull the Huskies (27-6)  within 5-3. Shortstop Trent Goodrich ripped a two-run triple in the fifth inning and scored later in the inning on a throwing error to put Hamilton in front, 6-5.

All during that time Hamilton ace Andrews had rebounded from the slow start to throw four straight shutout innings against arguably the best lineup in the state. But a leadoff triple by Tucker in the bottom of the sixth and a single by that man Kipper scored Tucker to tie the game at 6

Andrews lasted seven innings and escaped a jam in that frame getting Brantley Bell to fly out to right with the winning run at third.

Cron, meanwhile, continued on despite a high pitch count.

"He wasn't going to let me take him out even if it took 200 pitches," Buck said.

Cron, who did go the distance, finishingup allowing six hits, six walks, hit three batters and struck out 14. Four of the six runs Hamilton scored came from runners who either walked or were hit by pitch.

"We did all we could, they just had a little more at the end," Hamilton coach Mike Woods said. "We're not hanging our heads. We're down, but we got beat by a very good team."