This year, Brophy accepted a request to host the nationally recognized baseball tournament Horizon organizes since Horizon is participating in a tournament in North Carolina this week.

But for Hamilton, it didn’t really matter where the Arizona High School Spring Baseball Invitational was held. That’s because Hamilton felt right at home during its tournament title run at Brophy.

Hamilton travelled home Thursday night with one of the first big prizes in the Arizona high school baseball season after defeating Corona del Sol 8-4 in the Spring Baseball Invite final.

Despite winning the tournament and sitting at 15-2, Hamilton coach Mike Woods didn’t heap that much praise on his team. There’s still 11 regular season games left to play against some good competition, and Hamilton’s multi state championship head coach is still seeking improvement.

“We are still a work in progress,” Woods said. “We made a lot of mistakes today. We have to get better, but I like the progress we are making. We are a good club, but we have to get better. That’s the bottom line.”

Hamilton started four sophomores, including three in the infield, against Corona del Sol.

But Hamilton’s sophomore class can do some damage, and one of the super sophs even has a last name that matches the way he plays. Nick Brueser, Hamilton’s No. 3 hitter, went 3 for 4 with two RBIs Thursday to help him pick up tournament MVP honors.

Hamilton also carries a strong starting pitching rotation, including the Spring Invite’s Outstanding Pitcher honoree Zane Strand. But Corona del Sol jumped on one of Hamilton’s strong pitching arms early to pull ahead 3-1 in the third inning.

But starter Nick Ohanian settled down and didn’t allow another run until a sixth inning RBI triple by Corona del Sol’s Chase Hamilton. Ohanian struck out eight batters and gave up seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Aggressive base running and three hits helped Hamilton score four runs in the fourth inning, when it started to take control of the game and made the defensive play of the game. With a man on, left fielder Dom Castro sprinted to his left and made a diving catch to rob Corona del Sol of a hit, helping keep Corona del Sol scoreless in that inning.

But tournament Gold Glove honors went to Corona del Sol’s Matt Weston for his work in right field during the tournament. Corona del Sol’s leadoff hitter Ryan Novis was named the tournament’s Outstanding Hitter.

Corona del Sol (12-2) has a big power ranking game on Saturday against Chaparral and likely saved its best arms for that game. But the team is still pleased with its tournament performance.

“We fixed a lot of stuff this week,” Corona del Sol coach Dave Webb said. “We are constantly talking about if we can we take stuff from practice into the game, and this week they figured it out and went on a little (tournament) run. ”