Flowing Wells scored 11 runs in the top of the 7th inning Saturday afternoon to defeat Tanque Verde 15-6 in the championship game of the Panther Invitational held at Amphitheater High School. The Caballeros sent 15 batters to the plate in the final inning highlighted by six hits in the comeback victory.

Tanque Verde came into the championship final with a 3-0 record, including a 12-7 win over Flowing Wells on Friday, and the Caballeros were 2-1 with victories over Baboquivari and Mountain View Marana. The Hawks also had wins over Mountain View and Amphitheater to set up the championship game.

Tanner Thornton went 4-4 with a double, 2 RBI and a walk. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Tanque Verde scored four runs in the bottom of the first for the early lead with a leadoff double from Ryan Sanderson and a 2-RBI single from Tyler Walker setting the tone. Flowing Wells started to chip away at that lead with a run in the third on a double from Michael Escalante and an RBI from Sammy Padilla and an unearned run in the fourth on a single by Tanner Thornton and a score on an error later in the inning to cut the lead down to 4-2.

The Hawks got those two runs back on a monster blast from Matt Altherr and a fielding error on a single from Payson Lee. The Caballeros scored two in the top of the sixth inning on a triple from Josh Menchaca, a double from Thornton and a single from Christian Cortes to make it 6-4 Tanque Verde heading to the seventh.

Padilla started things off with an infield hit, Marco Jones reached on a hit-by-pitch and Menchaca reached on an outfield error to load the bases with no outs. Thornton collected an RBI single and Tommy Padilla had a 2-RBI single to put Flowing Wells up 7-6 with no outs.

Antonio Urquidez got the win for the Caballeros. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Antonio Urquidez put down a sac bunt and Dustin Vivian was intentionally walked. Alex Fitzgerald had an RBI single and then Escalante reached on an error. Sammy Padilla had an RBI sac fly and then Jones had an RBI single. Menchaca reached on a hit-by-pitch, Thornton was walked and the Tommy Padilla hit an RBI to make it 15-6.

Thornton got the start for Flowing Wells and he gave way to Urquidez in the 5th inning. Urquidez shutdown the last seven batters he faced including a pickoff on the one hit he gave up down the stretch. Trevor Carlson threw five plus innings for Tanque Verde and Jacob Gadway and Terrance Oathout also saw some action on the mound.

Sanderson went 2-4 with a double for Tanque Verde and Altherr had his sole homerun. Thornton went 4-4 with a walk, a double and 2 RBI for Flowing Wells and Sammy Padilla went 3-4 with a sac fly and 2 RBI.

Tanque Verde is 0-1 in power-ranking games and the Hawks will open up region play at home with Safford (0-1) coming in on Tuesday, March 8. Flowing Wells (1-0) will host Cholla (0-1) on Monday.

Tanque Verde senior Matt Altherr (7) celebrates his second homerun of the year. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)