Sierra Vista lands last flurry in win

Jab for jab and haymaker for haymaker, Sierra Vista and Las Vegas battled each other like heavyweight fighters on the baseball field Friday.

In the end, Sierra Vista finally dodged a blow or two and held on for a 13-12 home victory over the Wildcats.

The Mountain Lions gave up five runs in the opening half-inning, but answered with five of their own in the bottom.

Las Vegas counterpunched in the second inning with three more runs, but so did Sierra Vista, making the score 8-all.

“Both teams swung the bat pretty good. I don’t know how good the pitching was,” Sierra Vista coach Nate Selby said. “Neither one of us were doing much of anything, other than giving up a lot of hits early.”

Las Vegas led 10-8 entering the bottom of the fourth when Sierra Vista scored three runs to take the lead for good. Scotty Tomassetti’s two-run single put the Mountain Lions ahead 11-10.

That set up reliever Tommy Barnes to get the win. Barnes, who was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, at least slowed Las Vegas, allowing four runs in four innings.

“He did enough to keep us close, and then find a way to get enough hits to finally get a lead there,” Selby said. “And to flip it over and finally get a lead was nice.”

Barnes gave way to Blair Goldsack with a runner on and no outs in the seventh with Sierra Vista leading 13-11. Goldsack walked one and allowed an RBI ground-out, but struck out Brig Jensen with the tying run at third to end the game.

“(Goldsack) has been doing that all year so far,” Barnes said. “He’s been doing a really good job. Hopefully he keeps that up.”

Goldsack’s strikeout left Las Vegas star Bryce Harper in the on-deck circle when the game ended. That was just where Selby wanted him. Harper was 2-for-3 with a double and a monster two-run homer.

“We were very happy to see him not get to the plate,” Selby said. “He’s a pretty good player. And the best thing I can say about him is I think he’s playing hard.”

Jake Hager was 2-for-3 with a double and a solo homer, and Matt Holman had two hits and two RBIs for Sierra Vista.

Quinnton Mack was 3-for-3 with a homer, double and three RBIs for Las Vegas.