No. 1 seed Mesa opens up Region I Postseason play on Thursday
Wednesday May 1, 2024 - 2:50 p.m. | Dylan DeVlieger
Playoff baseball is back at Mesa Community College as the No. 1 seeded Thunderbirds host Gateway in a best of three series in the Baseball Region I DII Semifinals starting on Thursday.
MCC has made the journey from worst to first in just one season as last year they had one of the worst seasons in program history in 2023, going 22-33 (8-30 ACCAC). This season Mesa has made a complete turnaround going 35-20 (20-18 ACCAC). All roads to the title will run through Mesa as the T-Birds will host all the way through the postseason as long as they can get through Gateway in the first round.
Mesa has been much better when they're more familiar with their surroundings going 28-9 (.756 winning %) at home and 7-11 (.388 winning %) away from the nest. For a long time head coach Tony Cirelli, playing at home in the postseason is something he is used to and welcomes this season.
"We'll be at home both rounds and that's nice, historically we were home for 10 or 11 years straight in the poseseason. You're just comfortable in your own ballpark, you can keep routines the same," said Cirelli.
Mesa will have their work cut out for them in the semifinal round as they take on No. 4 seed Gateway who comes into action with a 24-30 record (17-21 ACCAC). The Geckos barely made it into the postseason as it is, ending their season tied with Scottsdale; their saving grace was a victory over No. 1 overall seed in the conference Central Arizona College that pushed them into the playoffs.
Gateway is the only team in the postseason that Mesa has a losing record against this season going 1-3. The Geckos put a stop to Mesa's longest winning streak of the season on Feb. 28 in a 7-4 victory.
More recently the T-Birds fell to Gateway in back-to-back contests losing 9-4 on April 23 and 15-11 on April 24. Mesa had looked in control on April 24 after building a 9-5 lead going into the bottom of the 5th , but a nine run Gateway bottom of the 5th seemed to doom the T-Birds in the loss.
A possible factor in Mesa's recent struggles at least against Gateway could relate to the loss of Christian Woodward. A freshman lefty, Woodward put on a clinic throughout the season, saving nine games for Mesa and coming up clutch in big game situations.
Unfortunately for the T-Birds Woodward's season is over due to injury. For Cirelli, losing a reliable arm out of the bullpen was a big blow, but he is pleased with how his team has stepped up in Woodward's absence.
"Since he went down and he's as good of a pitcher as I've ever seen, we haven't blown a save. Plutt came in and struck out two guys with the bases loaded in the ninth, Kaiser's been good as well," said Cirelli.
With the stakes high and Gateway having Mesa's number this season, it would be easy to think the T-Birds should change things up, but Cirelli and company know their consistent play has been the reason they've earned the No. 1 seed.
"We talk about it all year, we're not going to do anything different on the first game, first conference game, last conference game we talk about you're playing the game," said Cirelli.
Game one of the series will start at 3:00 p.m. An admission fee is required to enter the game, see pricing below.
CASH ONLY!!!
Adults - $5.00
Children under 12, students with ID, & adults 65 and older - $3.00
