Fluke plays key Sierra Vista victory

Every once in a while, the baseball gods intervene and shine good fortune on one lucky team. It was Sierra Vista’s turn on Wednesday.

The host Mountain Lions took advantage of two quirky plays in the bottom of the seventh inning and beat second-place Durango 4-3 in a Southwest League game.

“At the end of the day, when two teams are playing pretty well, little things turn into big things,” Sierra Vista (17-3, 5-2) coach Nate Selby said. “We tried to put the ball in play and we were very fortunate.”

Trailblazers starter Danny Reynolds was on cruise control after a bumpy start and retired the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh.

But Mountain Lions right fielder Brooks Klein reached first when his grounder to second took a wicked hop and bounced off Durango’s Matt Grisnik.

Klein promptly stole second and No. 3 hitter Matt Holman then lifted a seemingly routine fly ball. However, with the sun finally shining after an afternoon of overcast conditions, Trailblazers right fielder Ray Cardenas couldn’t find the ball and it fell in for the game-winning single.

“I was thinking it was the end of the inning,” Holman said. “Fortunately, it fell. That happens a lot here.”

Reynolds was the hard-luck losing pitcher for Durango (10-14, 6-2 Southwest) after going the distance with 11 strikeouts. With nearly a dozen scouts in attendance, Reynolds was hitting between 89-91 mph for most of the game and hit 93 mph in the first inning.

He gave up two runs — one unearned — in the first and another in the third. But Reynolds got better as the game wore on. After Jake Hager was walked intentionally to load the bases in the fourth inning, Reynolds retired nine straight.

“I felt a little more comfortable on the mound and my curveball was working better in the later innings,” said Reynolds, who escaped the jam in the fourth by striking out Klein. “My team tried hard. The ball just didn’t fall our way.”

Sierra Vista first baseman Tommy Barnes went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Hager was 2-for-3 and scored twice. Sophomore pitcher Blair Goldsack gave up one hit over the final two innings to pick up the victory.

“Learning how to win and finding ways to win certainly helps the kids,” Selby said. “Hopefully we can learn from this and use it later on.”

Durango certainly didn’t help itself with several mental mistakes on the basepaths. The Trailblazers had two runners picked off first and another caught in a rundown between third and home with the bases loaded and nobody out in the second inning.

The Trailblazers did manage one run in the second on Riley Smith’s sacrifice fly, and pulled within 3-2 on Cameron Coombs’ run-scoring double in the fourth. Cardenas doubled to lead off the fifth and scored on Grisnik’s RBI single to make it 3-3.

“We were not dialed in on the little things,” Durango coach Sam Knapp said. “You can’t give them anything. We missed a couple signs, but if we clean that stuff up, we’ll be fine.”