Alexander Olivas is an ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism student covering Cesar Chavez High School for AzPreps365.com

A young lineup with a fighting spirit and filled with a lot of heart, the Cesar Chavez Champions continued its hot start of the season after defeating the Maryvale Panthers on the road, 20-12.

Cesar Chavez started off the season hot with a record of 4-1 before encountering the Maryvale Panthers in search of its fifth win and winning its first road game of the season. 

Right away the Champions got off to a hot start scoring four runs after a couple of base hits. Two of those runs came off a two-run home run while not allowing any on defense. By the second inning the Champions would be up 7-0, however, soon by the third inning the Panthers would tie it up with an even score, 7-7. 

The game would then get interesting by the fourth inning as the Champions would rally themselves to add on another four runs to take an 11-7 lead. But, the Panthers would then respond back in the bottom of the fourth with four runs of their own and end up tying the game, 11-11.  

However, after the fourth inning ceased, it was all Chavez as the Champions would take full control of the game and score a combined nine runs in between the fifth and seventh innings while only allowing one run on defense in the sixth.

The Champions would end up winning the game 20-12, with the winning pitcher being Zade Munoz, a freshman, who pitched 4 innings while only allowing five runs with five strikeouts. 

After the game, head coach Sergio Acosta gave his thoughts on the game and what he’s been impressed with so far by the team.  

“Maryvale did a good job, they scratched some runs away, they made it interesting,you know they’re scrappy so you have to give them a little bit of credit,” Acosta said. “We’ve been swinging the bats well and our pitching is keeping us in the game. Today we threw two freshmen so they came in and did their job, ate up some innings and kinda saved us some guys.”  

The Champions were led on offense by junior Adolfo Pachecho, who recently transferred from Apollo High School last season, collected five hits in six plate appearances with one being a double. After the game, Pacheco gave his thoughts on what worked for the team in getting the win and the mindset for the rest of the season.

“Overall everybody stuck together very good, we put up a lot of runs, we had a lot of errors but the run support backed us up, pitching the freshman did really good,” Pacheco said. “We just have to stay disciplined at the plate, everyone has to do their part, it’s nice not having selfish people on the field at the end of the day, so if everybody does their part we end up winning the game.”

Another impactful player for the Champions also included sophomore Carlos Leon batting in the lead-off spot in which he collected three hits out of six plate appearances with two of them being doubles. Leon gave his thoughts on what worked well and what he can do in order to be able to contribute more to the team.

“We just hit, we hit a lot, we might have some shaky innings and all that, but at the end of the day I think we’re the better hitting team,” Leon said. “I think as long as I just get on base for my upperclassmen like Xavier, Adolfo, Robert, and Jaidan Tafoya, I think I’m just going to be able to score everytime I get on as a lead-off”  

The Champions will have some tough games heading later in the week and next week as they face off against Basha High School and will play out in Gilbert at the Bob Everitt Classic. But for coach Acosta, he plans to get better and take it one week at a time to find success while playing some good teams in order to find success later in the season. 

“Just week by week, we want to get better, we want to play good competition, we’re going out to Gilbert to play against those east valley schools to get us ready for region play after we get back from spring break,” Acosta said. “I think we got a good ballclub, we’re happy with what we’ve got, we just got to stick together as a group, we have to support each other, push each other, we’re only gonna get better if we’re solid as a team.”

Cesar Chavez (5-1) will visit the Basha Bears (4-3) on March 6 at 3:45 p.m.

Maryvale (0-7) will host the Dobson Mustangs (6-3) on March 6 at 3:45 p.m.