BASEBALL -- Pride's bats fall silent in season-ending loss

When they needed them the most, the Mountain Pointe baseball team's bats simply weren't there.

The No. 14-seeded Pride (20-15) fell behind No. 15 Gilbert Mesquite early and weren't able to recover, losing 7-1 in the semifinals of the Class 5A-Division I state tournament at Phoenix Municipal Stadium Thursday night.

"I thought we still had a shot, but we just missed our opportunities with runners in scoring position," Pride shortstop Brayden Falk said afterward. "We couldn't get them in."

It was the Pride's second loss to the Wildcats in the past week. Mesquite, which moves on to play Chandler Hamilton in the championship game Saturday night, beat MP, 2-1, May 3 to knock the Pride into the loser's bracket.

"They deserved it," Falk said. "They beat us twice."

Whereas MP couldn't get anything going offensively, Mesquite got all the timely hits. A first-inning triple from center fielder Austin Carr spotted the Wildcats a 1-0 lead; he would later come across on a wild pitch.

Two innings later, freshman Zach Davies added an RBI single as Mesquite went up 3-0. Another RBI single from Carr in the top of the sixth essentially sealed the game.

"Mesquite, they're playing great baseball," MP coach Brandon Buck said. "They're coming in, they've got nothing to lose. They're playing and being scrappy, and they're swinging the bats."

Mountain Pointe sure had its chances.

Right fielder Tyler Studt drilled a ball off the top of the wall in left field to lead off the bottom of the third, then Jake Waldren followed that with a single to give the Pride runners at the corners and no outs.

But Falk popped out to third base, then catcher C.J. Cron did the same to first. After a walk to load the bases, Nick Lira's groundout ended the threat.

The next inning, with two outs, Studt again crushed a pitch, this time to right-center, to score Eric Klem and cut the lead to 3-1. Two walks then loaded the bases once more for Cron, who flied out to right field.

In consecutive innings, Mountain Pointe had loaded the bases. They had one run to show for it.

Then in the bottom of the sixth, with runners on second and third, Cron drilled a pitch off Mesquite pitcher Casey Rana - but the ball caromed right to Davies at second, who threw to first to end the inning.

The Pride left a total of 11 runners on base.

"We had a couple opportunities, with some freak things - bouncing off a pitching and hitting right to a guy," Buck said. "Not one time did we ever give up. It's a difficult battle no matter if they have runs or not."

Pride starter Ryan Klem took the loss after giving up four runs over five innings, though only two of the runs were earned. He struck out five and didn't walk a batter.

Rana finished his complete-game effort allowing only six hits. He walked six and struck out one.

"Our goal the whole time was (to win) state," Cron said, "but we had a hell of a run and I love all the guys. I'm going to miss them to death."