The Saguaro Sabercats baseball team defeated the Desert Mountain Wolves 3-0 in the season opener on Tuesday afternoon at Saguaro High School.

The Wolves opened the first with a single from junior Adam Goren. From there, the 2021 4A Desert Sky pitcher of the year and Saguaro senior, Thomas DeChesaro, took over. He stranded the runner on first and remained locked in the rest of the game. DeChesaro was able to finish the complete game shutout with a final statline of seven innings pitched, seven strikeouts and only one walk. DeChesaro also had a streak of four consecutive batters punched out between the second and third inning that really sparked the Sabercat bench.

“It felt good to throw for my teammates. They have my back. I have them,” DeChesaro said. “It felt good to go out there, execute my pitches, and come away with the win.”

Desert Mountain had a solid outing from starting pitcher senior Cooper Weekes for the first 3 2/3 innings. Weekes managed to keep the Sabercats bats quiet as he retired 12 of the first 14 hitters he faced.

One of the two batters not retired was Saguaro senior first baseman Miles Crutchley. In his at bat, during the bottom of the fourth inning, Crutchley hit a towering home run well over the 322-feet sign in left field to break the scoreless tie.

“To get a hit of that magnitude against a team like that is huge,” Crutchley said. “What Thomas did on the mound, I knew if we could just get one or two hits we were going to come out on top.”

Weekes struck out the next batter to end the frame, but the damage had been done. In the fifth inning DeChesaro hurled a 1-2-3 inning to give the offense a chance to extend their lead. 

The Sabercats quickly found themselves with two outs in the inning when sophomore right fielder Cade Shumard was hit by a pitch. He then advanced to second on an errant throw to first by Desert Mountain catcher Luke Moeller. Junior left fielder Donovan Davis ripped a double down the left field line to score Shumard and extend Saguaro’s lead. DeChesaro would help his own cause at the plate as he hit a single to right center and scored Davis from second to give the Sabercats a 3-0 lead.

This prompted a pitching change from the Wolves. Weekes was relieved by senior Mike Kasianko who recorded the final out of the fifth inning.

In the sixth, Desert Mountain was able to get their third hit of the game. A single from Leo Sarnataro. Despite this hit, the Wolves had trouble stringing any offense together

Sophomore Quinn Robinson pitched the bottom of the sixth for the Wolves, and, after giving up a leadoff single to junior catcher Tanner Nelson, he forced Crutchley to ground into a double play.

For Saguaro the 3-0 victory was their first of the season and they will travel to Chaparral High School to take on the Firebirds on Friday.

“The first win is always a huge monkey off the back and to beat the defending state champions in 5A, that’s an added bonus,” said Saguaro head coach Joe Muecke.

Desert Mountain will also face Chaparral on Thursday at home before playing there again on Friday against the La Joya Community Lobos.