Coyotes to play for title

By Rob Miech

Friday, May 30, 2003 | 10:27 a.m.

Here is how a few of the CCSN starters have fared at the plate in this week's Junior College World Series:

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Another opponent was dispatched by the Community College of Southern Nevada via the mercy rule Thursday night at the Junior College World Series.

This time, however, the stomped-on foe tried to punch back in an eventual 14-1 defeat to the Coyotes -- who will play for the national championship Saturday night -- in five innings at Suplizio Field.

In the bottom of the third, CCSN left fielder Josh Brady slammed a two-out, three-run homer off San Jacinto-North (Texas) pitcher Joshua Batilla to pump the Coyotes' lead to 13-1.

Gators coach Tom Arrington yanked Batilla, then reliever Ben Cox plunked first baseman Don Sutton on his left side with his first pitch.

"It was a purpose pitch," said CCSN coach Tim Chambers. "They wanted to get us riled up a bit, but our guys are too focused to let that rile them up. Our kids have too much character for that.

"It hurt, I'm sure. But we don't play that way, especially at this point in the season. They felt like that's what they needed to do, and that's OK, too. But it doesn't bother us. We won't even talk about it."

Sutton was ticked, as umpire Jon Browar and San Jacinto catcher Nick Stavinoha positioned themselves between Sutton and Cox. Sutton exchanged words with Stavinoha before jogging to first base.

Browar eventually warned Cox and both benches.

"I thought it was intentional," Sutton said. "But, you know, I just was a little mad. I think everybody does that when they get hit. It's not a nice feeling. I just let it go and walked down to first."

About those words for Stavinoha?

"We won't mention those," Sutton said.

The lopsided loss slapped San Jacinto (51-12) with its first defeat of the double-elimination tournament, and it will have to beat the Walters State (Tenn.) Senators tonight to play CCSN again Saturday for the title.

"They played well tonight," said a curt Arrington of the Coyotes. "They're a good team. They played well."

Did Cox merely lose control of the one that hit Sutton?

"Yeah," Arrington said, "he looked a little wild tonight."

Indeed, in the fourth, CCSN catcher C.J. Ebarb drew a walk from Cox and wound up scoring the final run of the game when Cox unleashed three wild pitches in his next 11 throws to the plate.

"Whether it was intentional or not, I don't know," Brady said of Sutton's beaning. "If it was, that's pretty low class. But accidents happen. It's just something you have to deal with. I'm glad Sutton is all right and he'll still be able to play."

CCSN (54-10) has blasted its past four opponents by a combined 50-10 since it lost its opener to Seminole (Fla.), 7-6, on Saturday, and three of those victories were in five innings.

The World Series mercy rule applies if a team is ahead by 10 runs after five innings, or eight runs after seven innings.

"Oh yeah, they're a lot of fun," Brady said of mercy-rule victories.

"Yeah, we love them," Sutton said. "But the most important thing is just to score right off the bat. That's what will make people fall down. Obviously, they did. We'll just keep hitting it."

San Jacinto scored a run in the first, when Coyotes starter Jabe Beard (13-1) had difficulty locating the strike zone in a 28-pitch inning.

Joshua Aranda reached on an infield single, Stavinoha flew out to Calvin Beamon two steps in front of the fence in right, Mike Pankratz dribbled a single between third and short, and Andrew Baldwin drew a walk.

Beard walked in a run before the Coyotes clamped down, ending the threat when shortstop Sean Kazmar fielded a bad-hop grounder by Will Crouch to force Jeremy Aranda at second.

Beard faced only four batters in the second, and then his teammates exploded for eight runs in the bottom of that inning.

The rest of the way, only two Gators reached third base. There were two outs both times, and Beard struck out the next batter -- Crouch -- on both occasions.

"Those runs gave me a boost," Beard said. "I had confidence in my teammates, and they had confidence in me. I settled down. As far as Sutton getting hit, we won't retaliate. We'll show it on the field and with our bats.

"It will be very interesting if we play them Saturday, but we'll have the same mentality. Now we have a chance to win it, and this team has a lot of confidence."

San Jacinto starter Tyler Bryant (6-1) didn't last through that second inning, when Brady chased him with a two-out single to left that brought in Kazmar. With the bases loaded, Kazmar had doubled to the right-center wall to score all three runners.

After Brady's single, Sutton blasted his second homer of the World Series, on Batilla's third delivery, to make it 8-1.

"It's about time, that's all I got to say," Sutton said. "I was really pumped up today. I took the best hack of my life, and I hit it as far as I possibly could. That pumped this team up a lot."

Brady capped the five-run burst in the third with a three-run homer to left-center off Batilla's first toss. Brady studied how Batilla relied on off-speed stuff to the six Coyotes who hit before him, so he adjusted.

"I sat back a little, waiting for it," Brady said. "I knew he'd probably come with it. Sure enough, he gave it to me. I stayed back a little bit more than I normally would have, and I got hold of it."

The Coyotes are now a victory away from the goal they set that day last fall, when Chambers held his first team meeting in the park just beyond the left-field foul line at Lied Field in Henderson.

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has already proclaimed Sunday to be Coyotes Baseball Day and, win or lose Saturday, a celebration has been planned for Chambers and his team at Lied that afternoon.

It should be taking place as the CCSN Ryan Express luxury bus -- with the yellow "I drive the No. 1 Coyotes" sign in the front window -- pulls into Henderson.

"We talked about having emotion," Chambers said. "Really, it was the emotion today. I think we had more energy than they did. They could also afford a loss, and we couldn't. Now, they have to fight to try to get back to us.

"We'll just focus on what we have to do to win the national championship, not what anyone else has to do."