Beggs diamond squad sees tough competition at Best of West Tourney

The Beggs Golden Demon varsity baseball program spent part of their Spring Break this week 16 hours (one way) from home, competing in the Best of the West Baseball Tournament in Arizona.

The Demons (7-6) battled tough teams during their 4-game, 3-day, tournament schedule, but were unable to come away with a victory, being outscored a combined 35-11.

The first tournament opponent for the Beggs diamond squad at the tournament was the Mustangs of Sunrise Mountain High School, out of Peoria, Arizona, on Monday, falling by an 8-0 margin.

On Tuesday, the Demons began the second day of their tournament action against the Coyotes of Centennial High School, out of Peoria, Arizona, ending up on the short end of a heartbreaking 5-4 decision, then were shut out 13-0 later on Tuesday to the Saints of Notre Dame Prep School, out of Scottsdale, Arizona, before finishing their 4-game tournament schedule Wednesday evening with a 9-7 loss to the Knights of Lake Havasu (AZ) High School.

The Demons are scheduled to begin their post-tournament play on Monday and Tuesday with District 3A-6 action against county rival, Morris, hosting the Eagles on Monday and traveling to Morris on Tuesday. The Beggs squad will close out next week’s 3-game schedule next Thursday in Depew in a showdown with the Depew Hornets.

In Monday’s battle with Sunrise Mountain, the Demons were held to just two hits in the contest – a single in the first by Ranson Stephens and a single in the fifth by Dakota Hudson.

Sunrise Mountain opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first, then added four in the third, two in the fourth, and one in the fifth for the 8-run total.

Nate Melton was saddled with the pitching loss for Beggs, allowing seven runs on seven hits, walking one, striking out one, and hitting a batter in four innings of work.

Landon Helt worked two innings of relief for the Demons in the tournament opener, giving up one run on one hit with one walk.

Against Centennial on Tuesday, the Coyotes opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first, while Beggs answered with two runs in the home half of the inning for a 2-1 margin after one inning of action.

After a scoreless second, both teams tallied two runs in their half of the third for a 4-3 Beggs advantage.

Centennial plated a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to regain the lead, 5-4, while the Demons were unable to produce any runs in their next two at-bats to suffer the 5-4 setback.

The Beggs offense scattered seven hits in the loss, led by the duo of Jace Basquez (2 for 2, 2 singles) and Lance Kelly (2 for 3, 2 singles) with two hits apiece. The other three base hits for the Demons against Centennial came on singles by Nate Melton and Jerrett Hammer and a 2-run single by Colton McCoy.

Hammer was handed the pitching loss for Beggs, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and one strikeout in one and two-third innings of relief work.

Hammer took over out of the bullpen for starter Basquez, who gave up four runs on two hits, striking out four, walking two, and hitting one in three and one-third innings of work.

In Tuesday’s shutout loss to Notre Dame Prep, the Demons were held to just two hits in the 3-inning contest – singles by Nate Melton and Lance Kelly.

Notre Dame Prep opened the scoring with seven runs in the bottom of the first, then added two in the second and four in the third to the 13-0 decision.

Ranson Stephens was saddled with the loss for Beggs, allowing seven runs on five hits with five walks in just one inning of work.

Gunner Baker worked the final two innings on the bump for the Demons, giving up six runs on six hits with two strikeouts, three walks, and one hit batter in the relief appearance.

In Wednesday’s showdown with Lake Havasu, Beggs broke a scoreless tie with five runs in the top of the fourth for the 5-0 advantage. Lake Havasu answered with six runs in the home half of the frame for a narrow 6-5 lead after four innings of action.

The Demons deadlocked the score at 6-6 with a run in the top of the fifth, then the Beggs squad took back the lead, 7-6, with a run in the top of the sixth. The Knights countered with 3 runs in the last of the inning to take a 9-7 advantage into the final inning of regulation.

The Beggs offense was unable to overcome the 2-run deficit in their final at-bat, suffering the 9-7 defeat.

Jason Remington absorbed the pitching loss for the Demons on Wednesday, allowing four runs on eight hits, walking one in three innings of relief work.

Remington entered out of the bullpen with the bases loaded, no outs, and the Demons leading 5-2 in the fourth inning, taking over for starter Landon Helt, who gave up five runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and three walks in three-plus innings of work.

The Beggs offense finished with eight hits in the contest.

The eight Demon hits came off the bats of eight different Beggs hitters and featured singles by Colton McCoy, Carson Cooper, Lance Kelly, and Jerrett Hammer, double by Ranson Stephens, triple by Remington, RBI single by Helt, and 2-run single by Nate Melton.

— Best of the West Tournament First Game

Sunrise Mountain (AZ) 8, Beggs 0

Beggs: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0-2-6 SunriseMt:1-0-4-2-1-0-x 8-8-0 WP: Dinnell LP: Nate Melton HR: None — Second Game

Centennial (AZ) 5, Beggs 4

Centennial: 1 – 0 – 2 – 2 – 0 5 – 6 – 1 Beggs: 2-0-2-0-0 4-7-3 WP: Unknown LP: Jerrett Hammer HR: None — Third Game

Notre Dame Prep (AZ) 13, Beggs 0

Beggs: 0-0-0 0-2-1 Notre Dame: 7 – 2 – 4 13 – 11 – 0 WP: Unknown LP: Ranson Stephens HR: None — Fourth Game

Lake Havasu (AZ) 9, Beggs 7

Beggs: 0-0-0-5-1-1-07-8-1 LakeHavasu:0-0-0-6-0-3-x 9-15-1 WP: Mendoza LP: Jaxon Remington HR: None