By John Alvarado

It was the perfect matchup for the Division V state baseball championship, the No.1 Bagdad Sultans facing off against the No. 2 Pima Roughriders at Maryvale Baseball Park.

After seven hard fought innings, Pima (24-4) beat Bagdad (23-5) 2-0.

The close game was decided by the starting pitchers, Travis James of Pima and Bagdad’s Ben Loveall.

James’ performance against the Roughriders was the deciding factor for the team and was the MVP. In his eleventh win of the season, the junior allowed only three hits for the evening.

James said that he threw everything in his arsenal, but his best pitch was his fastball.

“I had a lot of velocity,” James said. “I was just spotting it everywhere.”

(Pima's Travis James)

Roughriders head coach Greg Cooper said he knew the championship game would be a pitcher’s duel.

“I wasn’t worried about Travis, or what he was going to do,” Cooper said. “I was just thinking when can we get to him (Loveall), and obviously it was in that third inning that we were able to do some things (by scoring two runs) with him.”

Cooper said his pitcher was able to pull off the performance in the windy and hot weather because James practiced in warm weather in Pima and has been playing baseball since he was very young.

“In the heat, his slider is a whole lot more effective,” Cooper said. “I knew that if it was a little warm or little humid that we were going to be good because his slider was going to be deadly.”

While James came away with the victory, Sultans pitcher Loveall battled against the Roughriders.

The championship game ended a seven-game winning streak for Loveall. In five 1/3 innings, the junior allowed six hits and only two runs.

Yet, those runs, which happened in the top of the third, were critical.

It started when Roughriders designated hitter Jarrett Carbajal reached base on an error. After right fielder Ajay Clark struck out and second baseman Aaron Media was walked, first baseman Justin Kartchner hit an RBI single, scoring Carbajal. Travis James then followed with an RBI single of his own, allowing Medina to score.

Sultans head coach Dalton Mills said that the error was big, but also added that it was not the only thing that went wrong.

“I told the kid (Loveall) that ‘You can’t beat yourself up over that,’” Mills said.

After allowing two more hits in the fifth, Loveall was replaced by his younger brother, Israel, who allowed one hit in the one 1/3 innings.

Coach Mills said his team looks forward to big things from the Loveall brothers in next couple of seasons despite the way it ended.

By John Alvarado is a sports journalism student at Arizona State.