Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: Senior Mario Garcia reaches up to return the ball during his singles pairing with Willcox. He had a 2-set win from the No. 5 slot as the Wildcats shutout the Cowboys in the season finale April 16. He is 10-4 in singles plus 8-6 in doubles.
By Raymundo Frasquillo
MORENCI – Five seniors and a junior did their best before the home fans and posted a 9-0 shutout of Willcox April 16.
Thatcher (9-0 over Benson) and Pima (5-4 over Duncan) also had wins in pairings for section members. Safford blanked Saint David 9-0.
At the regular season’s end, the Division III – Section I standings have Thatcher first (14-0 seeding, 12-0 section), Benson second (10-4, 9-3), Morenci third (9-5, 7-5), Willcox fourth (7-7, 5-7), Safford fifth (6-9, 5-7), Pima sixth (5-9, 3-9), and Duncan seventh (1-11, 1-11).
This month, the Wildcats also succumbed 5-4 in Benson April 2, 9-0 to Thatcher April 4, and 7-2 to Benson April 8, before defeating Duncan 7-2 April 9
For seeding matches, the Wildcats are 47-37 in singles and 23-16 in doubles after 14 duels, including two forfeit losses in both singles and doubles.
In singles, No. 5 senior Mario Garcia is 10-4, both No. 4 senior Seth Rodgers and No. 6 junior Shaun Espinosa 8-5, and No. 1 senior Tanner Hudman, No. 2 senior Andrew Vigil, and No. 3 senior Ryan Williams 7-7 apiece.
The No. 1 Hudman – Vigil duo is 9-5, No. 3 Williams – Espinoza 9-1, No. 2 Rodgers – Garcia 6-5, Williams – Garcia 2-1, and Espinoza – Rodgers 1-1.
Wildcats – 9, Cowboys – 0
The Wildcats won all nine pairings with the Cowboys.
Hudman (6-4, 6-2 over senior Chase Childers), Vigil (6-4, 6-1 over Edward Vega), Williams (6-3, 6-4 over freshman Hunter Childers), Rodgers (6-3, 6-2 over sophomore Marcus Barba), Garcia (6-1 twice over junior Nicholas Ortiz), and Espinoza (6-0 twice over Jeremy Nieto) had the singles wins.
The doubles pairings had identical 8-2 scores, Hudman – Vigil (over Childers – Childers), Rodgers – Garcia (over Vega – Barba), and Williams – Espinoza (over Ortiz – Nieto).
A prior pairing with the Cowboys in Willcox resulted in a 5-4 loss on March 21. The bottom three singles slots were Garcia at No. 4, Espinoza at No. 5, and Rodgers at No. 6.
Wildcats – 7, Wildkats – 2
Morenci won four singles and the three doubles pairings.
The host Wildcats got singles wins by Vigil (10-4 over senior Nate Rapier), Williams (10-2 over junior Lucas Basteen), Garcia (10-5 over senior jay Garner), and Espinoza (10-0 over senior Weston Skinner).
In doubles, it was Hudman – Vigil (10-3 over Kempton – Basteen), Rodgers – Garcia (10-8 over Rapier – Conyer), and Williams – Espinoza (10-0 over Skinner – Garner).
Duncan had wins of 11-10 via a 10-5 tie-breaker by sophomore Nathan Kempton (over Hudman) and 11-9 by senior Wesley Conyer (over Rodgers).
Bobcats – 7, Wildcats – 2
Two doubles pairings were won by the Wildcats over the Benson Bobcats in Morenci.
The Hudman – Vigil and Williams – Espinoza duos prevailed, 8-5 over junior Joseph Lutz – senior Tristan Barker and 8-4 over senior Liam Sprietsma – sophomore Camden Waite, respectively.
Benson took the other doubles match, sophomores Jordan Merrill and Cole Massey defeated Rodgers – Garcia 8-1.
In singles, it was Merrill (6-0, 6-1 over Hudman), Lutz (6-1, 6-0 over Vigil), Barker (6-2 twice over Williams), and Massey (6-1, 6-0 over Rodgers).
Sprietsma (lost 6-0, won 6-3) and Waite (won 6-3, lost 7-5) both won tie-breakers, 10-4 and 10-5, respectively, to take the matches.
Eagles – 9, Wildcats – 0
The Thatcher Eagles left Morenci with a clean sweep of the Wildcats.
Junior Grant Richardson (6-0, 6-4 over Hudman), junior Aaron Hatch (6-2 twice over Vigil), sophomore Michael Greer (6-0 twice over Williams), junior Brandon Udall (6-0 twice over Rodgers), junior Tyler Bierman (6-0 twice over Garcia), and junior Amon Hatch (6-0, 6-1 over Espinoza) had the singles wins.
The doubles wins were by Greer – Bierman (8-3 over Hudman – Vigil), Aaron Hatch – Udall (8-1over Garcia – Rodgers), and Richardson – Amon Hatch (8-0 over Williams – Espinoza).
Bobcats – 7, Wildcats – 2
The Wildcats prevailed in a singles and doubles pairing over the Bobcats in Benson.
Rodgers (8-4 over Massey) and Williams – Espinoza (8-3 over Sprietsma – Waite) had Morenci’s wins.
For Benson, it was Merrill (8-0 over Hudman), Lutz (8-2 over Vigil), Barker (8-6 over Williams), Sprietsma (8-3 over Garcia), and Waite (8-3 over Espinoza) in singles.
In doubles, Lutz – Barker (8-4 over Hudman – Vigil) and Merrill – Massey (8-0 over Rodgers – Garcia) had the wins.
