ONLINE UPDATE: 4-run rally pushes Pride softball past Thunder

A last ditch effort may have saved Mountain Pointe softball's state tournament hopes.

Down 5-3 entering the top of the seventh inning, the Pride scored four runs, then held on for a 7-5 win over rival Desert Vista Wednesday night.

"I told them that this was our game and we needed to show them who we are and that we needed to leave them out on the field," MP coach Mel Wendell said of her pre-inning speech. "The girls took it and ran with it, which was great."

After a flyout, the Pride (16-12, 2-4 Central Region) loaded the bases, got an RBI single from catcher Samantha Aguirre before pitcher Danielle Muniz laced the first pitch she saw for a two-run double. After a pitching change, first baseman Sienna Martinez then added a single that scored Aguirre.

"It was that series of hits in a row. That's really what separated us," said DV coach Chris Crowl. "We weren't able to recover in time."

MP had nine hits up until the seventh inning, but had also left 11 runners on base up to that point.

"We had a lot of hits, we just didn't have the timely hits that we needed to get the runners in," Wendell said. "We kind of sat back like, ‘Oh, we're hitting well, we're doing well.' We just didn't push any runners across."

The win temporarily vaults the Pride, No. 17 in the AIA's power rankings entering the day, into the No. 16 slot, just ahead of Tucson for the final spot in the state tournament. Tucson was idle today but plays Rincon tomorrow.

The Thunder (8-18-1, 0-6) had rallied from down 3-2 to take a 4-3 lead in the fourth, then added an insurance run in the fifth on a double from second baseman Whitney Burns.

DV pitcher Kelsey Nordahl - who had been pulled from the Thunder's 9-2 loss to the Pride Tuesday after giving up four runs in 1 1/3 innings - then took over, silencing the MP bats.

Up until the seventh inning, the sophomore had given up just three runs over six innings, and walked only two batters.

"She gave us everything she had," Crowl said. "Her pitch location was better, she was hitting her spots a lot better. She stepped us for us today and we needed that."

But fatigue started to catch up to Nordahl on Meagan Yabumoto's double that started the MP rally in the seventh. Pinch hitter Chrystine Bohman followed that with a single, as did center fielder Holly Phillips, loading the bases and setting the stage for Aguirre, Muniz and Martinez.

"(Nordahl) was actually handling their batters, and we were playing pretty good defense," Crowl said. "We gambled and we thought she was in a groove and so we let her finish it out. Unfortunately, they found the right timing and we weren't able to get it done."

Muniz pitched the final 2 1/3 innings in relief of Mel Lopez to pick up the win over DV for the second straight day. She struck out three and didn't walk a batter.

Both teams face Chandler Basha and Tempe Corona del Sol - the current Nos. 1 and 4 teams, respectively, in the power rankings - before playing one another in the regular season finale next Wednesday.

"The fact that we have Corona on Friday, this is just perfect for us to feed off of," Wendell said. "We did what we needed to do. We got behind and we came back. That does happen against Corona. We've got to have the confidence that we can come back against any team. No matter what the score is, we can get our job done."

Notes: MP left fielder Lauren Irwin was 4-for-4. ... Muniz had three RBIs. ... Eight different Pride batters had hits. ... The top of the DV lineup was a combined 1-for-12.