MALAD CITY − Chad Maroney spent last season on the bucket next to Jeff Snow, content to offer opinions while someone else made the decisions.

Now it’s his call. And Malad baseball hasn’t skipped a beat.

The Dragons won their eighth consecutive Class 3A District IV-V championship and swept Nampa Christian at regionals to punch their ticket to a 22nd straight state tournament. Malad (22-4) enters as the top seed and defending champion, looking for its third title in four years and fifth in program history.

“It is kind of just an expectation down there,” Maroney said. “Being a new coach, there’s a lot of pressure because it is the expectation.”

Maroney is in his first season as head coach — and only his second ever coaching high school baseball. He connected with Snow through mutual friends after both relocated to Malad around the same time. When Snow stepped down for family reasons after last year’s title run, Maroney stepped up.

“There was definitely part of me that thought, one and done with Jeff — we won a championship, let’s get out of here on top,” Maroney said. “But you just come attached to the boys. You owe it to them to keep going.”

He did. The Dragons have picked up where they left off, rolling through district play capped by an 11-0 shutout over Wendell on May 2 that featured 13 stolen bases — including two steals of home.

Dawsyn Peterson was electric at regionals six days later on May 8. In the opener against Nampa Christian, he struck out 11 over 5⅔ innings as Malad rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the sixth inning, erupting for five runs on four hits to win 6-2. Peterson’s RBI single was the biggest blow.

“He definitely comes to play,” Maroney said. “The bigger the game, the more he wants to throw.”

Kurt Ward answered in the clincher, going all seven innings in a 3-2 win. He allowed just one earned run while seven different Dragons collected hits.

“We’re super confident one through nine,” Maroney said. “I don’t feel like we have a hole in our lineup.”

Malad’s four losses have all come against higher classifications — the Dragons are unbeaten against 3A opponents.

“I think they might like it a little bit,” Maroney said about being the team to beat.

MARSH VALLEY KEEPS ITS OWN STREAK GOING

ARIMO — The Marsh Valley baseball team doesn’t need much of an introduction at the state tournament. It has been there every year since 2014.

The Eagles claimed a 10th consecutive Class 4A District V championship with a 12-1 run-rule win over Bear Lake on May 2, then survived a rocky regional to punch their ticket back to state. Marsh Valley (24-6) enters with three state titles since 2019.

Tate Whitworth has been the headliner all postseason. The two-way standout went 3-for-3 at the plate in the district title game while Boston Sorensen handled the mound work, throwing four innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts. Ethan Anderson led the offense with three RBI in the rout.

Regionals were a different story. Whitworth took the ball in Game 1 against Filer and was brilliant — 11 strikeouts over seven innings — but the Eagles still fell 4-1, unable to solve Wildcats starter Brett Paxton.

Marsh Valley responded with back-to-back wins to take the series. In Game 2, the Eagles trailed by as many as four runs before rallying for a 5-4 victory. Anderson came on in relief to throw 4⅔ shutout innings, striking out nine, while Whitworth went 3-for-4 at the plate. The Eagles closed it out in Game 3 behind a three-run homer from Anderson to open the scoring, with Whitworth adding two hits and three RBI in a 9-4 win.

Denver Peterson started and went six innings in the clincher, with Anderson finishing it off.