Fountain Hills returned to the site where its 2012 season ended in a crushing extra inning defeat.

This time, Fountain Hills made sure history didn’t repeat itself in the semifinals of the Division III state baseball tournament at Surprise Stadium. There was nothing but jubilation Friday as Fountain Hills’ players jumped on each other to celebrate the 7-1 victory that clinched the program’s seventh trip to a state championship game.

Chino Valley scored the first run of the game, but Fountain Hills’ No. 2 pitcher, Nick Wojtysiak, shut out Chino Valley the rest of the way.

“It’s virtually the same team as last year,” Fountain Hills coach Mike Briguglio said. “They are still young, but they are hungry.”

Brigigulio’s boys showed just how hungry they were as soon as they came to bat in the bottom of the first inning, scoring three runs and never looking back.

Chino Valley’s bats got two hits in the first inning, but they were limited to that same amount from the second to seventh inning by Wojtysiak, a junior left handed pitcher who also struck out nine to improve to 7-2 this season. Wojtysiak did get in some trouble after the first inning, prompting his head coach to deliver a couple of spirited speeches to his pitcher on the mound.

“Wojtysiak is a high energy kid, and I have to match it with my high energy to get his attention,” Briguglio said. “I told him, ‘I don’t care about the runners on base. Just make sure to get the guys at the plate.’ And both times he did it.”

Briguglio is in his 16^th season at Fountain Hills and has a 3-3 record in state championship games, so he’s well-versed in finding ways to get the best from his players.

Briguglio also made a move near the end of the regular season that probably angered the baseball gods at first. He removed his starting catcher, Cameron Russo, a captain, and replaced him with a player, Josh Tant, who didn’t play last season.

Russo was moved to third base to take some pressure off the captain, who was struggling at the plate. But the moves paid off for everybody.

Russo (1 for 2, two RBI’s Friday) is delivering runs and playing great defense while also protecting Fountain Hill’s big bat, No. 3 hitter Andrew Bryniarski, in the lineup as the cleanup hitter. Tant went 3 for 3 Friday.

“He (Russo) is a tremendous leader,” Briguglio said. “He just wants to win.”

The same can be said about the entire Fountain Hills (27-5) team, which will face Empire in Saturday’s 7 p.m. final at Surprise Stadium.