Palo Verde’s baseball team had to wait a long time — about 24 hours — before it could take advantage of a bases-loaded opportunity against Foothill in a Class 5A Southern Region opening-round playoff game.
The game, originally scheduled for Monday, was suspended in the bottom of the first inning due to rain and resumed Tuesday.
When the Panthers finally got their chance to capitalize, they didn’t miss. Tanner Johns blasted a grand slam over the right-field fence in the first at-bat of the continued game.
Palo Verde never looked back. The Panthers, the No. 1 seed from the Mountain League, rolled to a 9-2 home win over Foothill, the Desert League’s No. 4 seed.
Palo Verde (22-8), the defending 5A state champion, will host Faith Lutheran — a 1-0 winner in nine innings over Las Vegas — at 4 p.m. Wednesday in a winners’ bracket game. Foothill (19-11-1) plays at Las Vegas at 4 p.m. Wednesday in an elimination game.
It’s the first game Palo Verde played without coach Dustin Romero, who led the Panthers to the 5A state title last year. Athletic director Joe Aznarez said after Monday’s game was suspended that Romero is “not coaching the team right now.”
Assistant Charlie Cerrone is serving as the interim coach.
Palo Verde school officials declined to comment on multiple occasions when asked about Romero’s status and why he is not with the team. The Clark County School District did not return an additional request for comment on the situation earlier Tuesday.
“We played with high energy,” Cerrone said. “I’m really happy for them with all the stuff that’s going on around here, I can’t comment on that, but I’m happy for the boys. I’m doing this for them.”
Palo Verde was also without starting shortstop and LSU commit Ethan Clauss. Cerrone said Clauss is “not around right now” and declined to say why he is not with the team.
On the field Tuesday, Johns, a Grand Canyon commit, went 3-for-3 with the grand slam, an RBI double, a triple and three runs scored. Johns threw the first inning of Monday’s game, but Cerrone said they decided to rest his arm for later in the tournament.
Sophomore Zach Franke stepped on the mound and didn’t miss a beat. The right-hander went five innings and allowed five hits and two runs with three strikeouts on 70 pitches to earn the win.
Franke “handled it excellent, he battled through it,” Cerrone said. “For a sophomore to be doing that, that’s his longest outing of the year, went 70 pitches. He battled through it. When it looked like he might buckle, he didn’t.”
That’s what happened in the fourth inning when the first three Foothill batters of the inning reached base and got on the board with a run. Franke settled in and retired the next three batters to keep Palo Verde ahead 8-1.
Johns got a four-run third inning started for Palo Verde with an RBI double. Noah Knudson scored Johns on a single, and Kyle Johnson added a two-run double later in the inning.
“Tanner had a day. Franke had a day. A couple of other guys had some big hits, and it’s a team win,” Cerrone said. “It’s all the lineup. They all contributed.”
Luke Jefferies added an RBI single in the fifth inning and finished 2-for-3 with a run scored for Palo Verde.
Thayne Watson had an RBI double in the third for Foothill, and Will Gibson added an RBI single in the sixth. Zaden Kekoa Sibal went 2-for-3 for the Falcons.
Cerrone said the best thing that happened Tuesday was showing up to a flooded field after a rain shower earlier in the afternoon. He said the way the players went to work to get the field ready for the game took their minds off everything going on and gave him confidence they could play together the rest of the tournament.
“I gave them the line yesterday, ‘A player can win any game, but a team can win every game,’” Cerrone said. “So we’ll try to get after it and do that. Hopefully, we have good energy with whoever we play (Wednesday).”
Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
