The Saguaro Sabercats (10-3) were just able to pull away with a 5-4 win against the St. Mary’s Knights (7-4) thanks to senior Nick Barendrick scoring in the top of the seventh inning Wednesday evening.

 

Barendrick had been a force all game, getting hits on two of his at three at -ats and getting walked once. Each time he was at the plate he ended up scoring, which included a pinch-runner situation.

 

The team looked to him to lead off the seventh inning and Barendrick delivered by starting the inning with a single, which ended up turning into the winning run.

 

“It’s really exciting, you know?” Barendrick said.  “Being able to help your team to get a W is always a good feeling. It felt really good.”

 

Barendrick also had the only triple for both teams in the game.

 

This game was not one-sided though, as the Knights did not make it an easy win for the Sabercats, despite being down three runs after just one inning.

 

“I told them, when they are nervous they don’t play as well,” Knights head coach Joseph Ponce said. “When they are focused and talking to each other, good things happen.”

 

St. Mary’s pitcher Matt Armendariz was a big part of the team’s effort, as he helped prevent the Sabercats from scoring again after the first inning until the fifth inning. He had six strikeouts in his showing on Wednesday.

 

“Our boys fought hard the entire game,” said Ponce. “Saguaro got up on us early. We were able to capitalize with some key hits and getting some guys on base, but Saguaro is so competitive. They won’t beat themselves and they don’t make mistakes.”

 

It was not until the bottom of the fourth that the Knights were able to find their stride, thanks to the problems that Sabercats pitcher Ryan Cowdry had in the inning.

 

In the third and fourth innings alone, he had one wild pitch, three walks and two batters hit. All this led to St. Mary’s taking the lead after trailing all game.

 

“Our starting pitcher probably didn’t have his best game today, but definitely competed for us,” said Sabercats head coach Joe Muecke.

 

Muecke knew just what to tell his boys to keep their heads up.

 

“In the moment you start pressing. We lose the lead and then all of a sudden guys try to make it all up,” said Muecke. “We just have to say ‘look we got three innings of baseball left right here… the game is far from over so we have to take it one pitch at a time.’”

 

This game held significance to both teams as it was a region game.

 

“This is a tough region,” said Muecke. “We know we have to get up for region games because between us and Thunderbird and Cactus Shadows and St. Mary’s, we’re going to have a lot of fights that are just like this game.”