Given one final chance in his career to be a hero, Noah Anderson took full advantage for himself and the five other seniors on senior day.
With Bayfield needing only two runs to lock up a mercy-rule victory in the second of two games Tuesday versus Alamosa, and Wolverines occupying both first and second base, Anderson lashed a Tony Griego pitch just beyond the reach of AHS’ diving shortstop and into shallow center field, scoring both Tyler Harriman (catcher Isaac Forsythe’s courtesy runner) and Owen Eidem to polish off a 15-0 rout.
“He’s been with us four years,” said Bayfield head coach Clay Miller, “He’s usually a guy that goes and bunts … gets us to the top (of the order). But he got to swing at it there and gave us a great hit.”
After defeating the Mean Moose 9-5 in the afternoon’s opener, BHS (8-13 overall, 4-4 3A Intermountain) belted AHS for nine first-inning runs in the second game and never looked back. Senior third baseman Micah Cornelia started the game off with a double to deep left, then scored two batters later when sophomore Josiah Mayfield grounded out to Alamosa pitcher Evan Anderson.
“I walked up there and he was throwing slow – I was looking for a bomb,” Cornelia said. “It just worked out for me.”
Sophomore Cameron Queen, however, then beat out an infield single down the third base line, and scored moments later when the Moose committed two fielding errors after senior Austin Wilmer singled to right-center. Wilmer advanced to third on the play, and after senior Brendan Heydinger walked, senior Forsythe plated Wilmer with a single to left.
Eidem walked, took second when Anderson reached via an error on AHS third baseman Xavier Lujan, and then scored via Cornelia’s opposite-field single to right (Anderson scored via error on the same play). Junior Tavian Box then cracked a liner into center, which beat the fielder’s attempted dive and continued toward the fence for a two-run, inside-the-park homer.
Wilmer later led off BHS’ second inning singling to right and later scoring from third base on a double-steal executed perfectly with Heydinger, who’d also singled off Evan Anderson (L; 2 IP, 9 H, 10 R, 4 ER) to right. Alamosa managed to escape without further damage, but couldn’t chip away at the 10-0 deficit in the top of the third.
Cornelia, Box and Mayfield were retired consecutively in the Wolverines’ third, but AHS (10-12, 3-5 IML) again failed to benefit when Queen (W, CG; 4 IP, H, 0 R, BB, K) got A.J. Baker to pop up to Box
On a day where neither Mean Moose starting pitcher, Anderson in game two, Lujan in game one, recorded a strikeout, Alamosa actually led 3-1 in the first game before the Wolverines equalized in the bottom of the second.
Eidem reached first via an error on third baseman Pittman and hustled to second on the play, then scored after a perfect Anderson sacrifice bunt and Cornelia sac-fly. Box then walked against Lujan (L; 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 ER) and scored via Mayfield’s single to right.
“Old-school baseball can win you games,” said Miller, tipping his cap to father and former BHS head coach Bert Miller. “And we executed that today.”
Bayfield then broke free with three unearned runs in the bottom of the third, added another in the fifth off reliever Pittman and two more in the sixth. Burciaga gave AHS one last hope in the top of the seventh inning, driving in Baker with a two-out single, but BHS reliever Tristan Bennett (2 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 3 K) then got Griego to ground out to second baseman Wilmer.
Totaling eight strikeouts, the first six looking, in his 4-2/3 frames of work before giving way to Cornelia (0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB), Wilmer earned the game one win. He gave up four hits and issued five walks, but allowed only AHS’ three early runs.
Offensively, he went 2-2 with a sacrifice bunt, a hit-by-pitch, and two runs scored. Box was 2-2 with a walk, hit-by-pitch, one run and one RBI, and Cornelia ended up 1-3 with a run and an RBI
“Senior Day’s my least-favorite day of the year,” Miller. “You realize the kids you’ve had for four years are leaving you after this, and that really sucks but it was special to see them come out and win two games today. Our seniors showed up. We knew this was the team we could be all year and we finally proved it against a good team.”
AFTERMATH: The Wolverines missed out on qualifying for the 2025 Class 3A state tournament’s opening Round of 32; Bayfield finished at No. 38 in CHSAA’s Selection & Seeding Index.
