Harmony Dominguez, Sierra Vista cap regular season in style

Sierra Vista’s softball team failed to score in double digits Thursday, the first time that’s happened in a Southwest League game since the opening week of the season.

No bother. Harmony Dominguez didn’t need much run support, anyway.

Dominguez allowed one hit in six innings, and the host Mountain Lions topped Durango 8-1 to clinch the outright league title.

“The subs that have battled and have been great teammates all year came in and stepped up,” Sierra Vista coach Raul Almaguer said. “It’s like we didn’t miss a beat.”

Daelynn Hilton and Aaliyah Medina each doubled and drove in a run for the No. 7 Mountain Lions (23-4, 17-1 Southwest), who will host Arbor View in the Sunset Region tournament opener at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Kalei Watkins hit a mammoth solo homer in the fourth inning and was honored after the game with Sierra Vista’s three other seniors.

“She has a little magic dust that everybody feeds off,” Almaguer said.

Dominguez settled down after a 26-pitch first inning, which ended when Taylore Edwards ranged from shortstop to snag a foul pop-up and then threw home to nail Destiny Cisneros, who had tagged up at third.

Dominguez struck out five, walked three and hit two batters before Watkins threw a scoreless seventh inning. Cisneros’ single up the middle in the third was the only hit for the Trailblazers (23-8, 12-6).

Durango’s run came in the fifth when Marlie Rodriguez reached on an error and scored from first after another Mountain Lions miscue two batters later.

Sierra Vista took advantage of three errors to score two runs in the second and broke open the game an inning later.

Hilton doubled in Medina to put the Mountain Lions ahead 3-0 and later scored on a delayed double steal. Dominguez added an RBI groundout before Courtney O’Neal singled in a run to give Sierra Vista a 6-0 advantage.

“Everybody’s healthy, and everybody’s stepping up in the right situations when it’s time for them to do their job,” Almaguer said. “Moving forward, there’s no reason to doubt ourselves anymore.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.