Kings get good look at 5A Desert Valley elite

Last year, the Phoenix-Brophy baseball team came this close to advancing to the state title game before Chandler-Hamilton's run of destiny overcame a huge deficit that would take it to a championship.

In Kofa's case, the Kings might be even a bit further behind the Broncos in the 5A Desert Valley Region.

Led by a ferocious 17-hit attack and a solid five innings from pitcher Pete Beringhaus, the Broncos (6-0, 1-0) made it official after an 11-0 victory at Kofa on Friday: they are once again for real.

"Those guys are very aggressive and we made some mistakes and they weren't things we didn't know how to do," Kofa catcher Bryan Casey said. "They are good hitters and any little mistake you make they will make you pay and capitalize on it."

Kofa (4-3, 1-2) could only muster four hits in the game, with three coming off of Beringhaus, who kept them off-balance with a variety of pitches.

"He throws strikes, and after being our number-two pitcher last year he's doing a nice job," Brophy coach Tom Succow said. "I thought he was wild enough to keep them off balance. He still had trouble closing out the innings when he had two outs and he'll have to work on that."

On the other side of the game, the Broncos flourished in the hitting department, erupting for a four-run third and a five-run fifth inning.

All told, Brophy collected eight doubles, with top prospect Alex Tsakiris coming up with four of them on a 5-for-5 day with two RBIs.

"Coach had said (Tsakiris) was the guy we didn't want to have beat us, but he's a heck of a hitter; you just have to tip your cap to him," Casey said. "Now, we've seen him once so hopefully we won't let him hit like that on Tuesday (in a doubleheader in Phoenix)."

Billy LaVelle (3-for-4) and Raoul Torrez (2-for-4) had the other standout performances for the Broncos.

Matt Fox hit a team best 2-for-3 for the Kings.

"It's a learning experience for our ball club and we need to improve it two areas," Kofa coach Richy Leon said. "We need to bring down our pitches and keep more of them out of the zone by throwing more offspeed and keeping it down. "

"Also we need to have a better plan for hitting what's given to us."