Baseball: MP crushes DV, now waits on playoffs

They had nothing to lose and they didn't.

Mountain Pointe rode a 12-run third inning and two grand slams to a 17-4 victory at home over rival Desert Vista avoiding a three-game series sweep by the Thunder.

Now all the Pride can do is sit and wait to see if Mesa Dobson, Phoenix Alhambra and Tucson Buena drop their final games of the regular season, giving Mountain Pointe an outside shot to make the state playoff tournament.

"We had nothing to lose," Mountain Pointe Brandon Buck said. "Our seniors stepped it up. We hope we get a chance to make the playoffs, but if we don't all of those guys will be able to walk away with a positive feeling and not look back."

Mountain Pointe sent 16 batters to the plate in the third inning while Pride starter Jacob Dziubczynski limited the Thunder to five hits through the opening four innings.

The Pride eventually ended up with 11 hits, only one more than the Thunder, but Kevin Cron and Ryan Klem but had grand slams for the Pride, and Danny Corwin even got his first home run with a blast over the left field fence.

After trailing, 1-0, after the first inning, Mountain Pointe won in five innings by the 10-run mercy rule.

"They hit the ball hard to all fields and they played well defensively, "Desert Vista coach Stan Luketich said. "They played a very good game. They're a good team."

Desert Vista already had a slot reserved among the top five seeds in the state 5A-I double-elimination playoffs that open on Saturday.

"Everyone is 0-0 now," Luketich added, "It's not the way we wanted to go into the state tournament, but that's where we are and we'll find out if we can handle a little bit of adversity and be ready to play on Saturday. We're in the state tournament and that's where we wanted to be."

The Thunder missed an opportunity when they had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the third inning. Dziubczynski got out of the inning with a strike out and getting the next batter to pop up.

The Pride broke out in the bottom of the same frame.

Desert Vista staged a mild comeback with three runs in the top of the fifth, but the Pride defense shut the door.

"They have a great program, so to give up one run to a team that has been crushing the ball is a credit to our guys," Buck added. "No matter what happens with the playoffs, this is a game they can look back on and remember."