Lucian Gonzalez (manager), Noel Zaldivar, Blake Burrows, Trenton Rhodes and Conner Fecht support their teammates at awards night.
Peggy Jones
The PCHS baseball team's turnaround has left everyone in awe. That was evident on Tuesday (May 23) when they stood on the auditorium stage for awards night.
The audience of parents, coaches and fellow athletes cheered for their success.
Coach Jared Jensen attributes the turnaround to summer ball games, winter workouts and baseball camps.
He also gave a shout out to Babe Ruth baseball for building a strong foundation.
"When you have a middle school aged group of kids play during the season, you can see the difference when they get up to this level," he said.
It adds up to some impressive achievements. This season the Mustangs jumped from last in the league since 2019 to a third-place finish.
They scored 138 more runs than last year and gave up 102 fewer.
From 2018 through 2022 they won 12 games. This season they tallied 14 wins and beat teams they hadn't beaten in years.
Not only did they make it to the zone championship for the first time since 2016.
They 10--runned Battle Mountain and finished a couple of plays away from going to State.
Wyatt Hughes, Trenton Rhodes, Taylor Montes, Noel Zaldivar and Conner Fecht earned All-Conference Honorable Mentions. Ayden Montes and Wyatt Diaz made the 2nd Team.
In addition, the principal and coaches named Noel Zaldivar the Block P Most Improved Male Athlete.
Diaz took home the Corky Mendenhall award for the senior who gave the most to his athletic teams. Rhodes is the outstanding JV boys basketball player.
Meanwhile, the baseball team earned a 2A Academic Championship. So did the spirit squad, softball players and leadership students.
"Thank you for letting me talk about this team for so long," Jensen said. "I could keep going about these guys and the great season they had. This program is on the right track but we still have a lot of work to do and we have some great kids to pursue it."