Ashley Stevens is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism Master’s student assigned to cover Mountain Ridge High School for AZPreps365.com

GLENDALE—Mountain Ridge found its offensive rhythm in a 10-2 victory over Sandra Day O’Connor on Friday. It was the Mountain Lions' second victory over their 6A Desert Valley rivals of the week, and constituted a two-game season sweep.

Mountain Ridge came battle-tested into the matchup after losing one day earlier to an undefeated Alhambra team, who now ranks above them in number two spot in the 6A conference rankings.

After entering Thursday night’s game lackadaisical, the power of Mountain Ridge’s lineup was carried by Jackson Forbes, Shaun Cottrell, and Aj Singer. Singer, who stayed put in his leadoff spot, went 3-for-5, with two singles, a double, a stolen base, and an RBI in the fifth inning. Forbes, in the sixth spot, went 2-for-3 with an RBI sacrifice bunt and two runs scored while Cottrell, who batted eighth, went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs, a double, two singles, a steal and three runs scored

Head coach Eddie Bonine shuffled his batting order one day after Alhambra hushed his Mountain Lion bats in a 6-4 loss. Cooper Neville, Jackson Forbes, and Cannon Peery, who normally sit atop the batting order, hit in the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots, moving Josh Wakefiled and Zach Yorke up in the lineup. 

“Getting back in the win column and after a tough loss last night (was important),” Bonine said. “Anytime you play friends and people you know across the neighborhood there's a heightened intensity and it always feels good to win baseball games. It's a good ballclub obviously, it just wasn’t one of those days for them.”

Mountain Ridge can normally rely on the power hitting of its lineup to put up numbers on the scoreboard, but on Friday capitalized on the Eagles' four errors, and played small ball to keep rallies going. 

“It was changing our mentality,” Cottrell said. “We watched a lot of fastballs yesterday with a lot of strikeouts. It was go get a pitch, go get on base. We owned up to our mistakes. Everybody's on each other's backs. I feel everyone is just invested in other people's reps.”

Shaun Cottrell closed out the victory, completing the sweep for the Mountain Lions, striking out five batters in two innings of work. (Ashley Stevens photo/ AZPreps 365)

Mountain Ridge’s 12 strikeouts in the box against Alhambra were cut in half in the matchup against O’Connor. The much more comfortable lineup had 14 hits on the day.

Sandra Day O’Connor opened up the scoring, plating two runs in the top of the second inning, before aophomore pitcher Smith Bailey honed in on the strike zone, utilizing his change-up from his three-pitch arsenal. 

Bailey started on the hill for the Mountain Lions and went five innings and allowed just five hits while striking out three. Senior Shaun Cottrell came in relief for the sixth and seventh innings. 

The two earned runs in the second inning for the Eagles were credited to senior infielder Kolt Kurzman, who brought home Hustyn Wheeler and Nico Rijo-Berger after he sent a base-clearing triple to the wall. Bailey retired Jake Sanko on a fly ball to center fielder Ameer McGee and didn’t allow a runner to score the next three innings.

“I felt pretty good,” Bailey said. “I couldn't really locate the off-speed pitches till later in the game, but trusted my defense to field so I just let them hit it.” 

“He made an adjustment going into the third inning of getting that secondary pitch over and in the zone,” Bonine said. “The first few innings he did a good job of attacking and making them earn their bases and earn their runs. Once he got the second pitch going then innings were a little bit smoother for him.”

Mountain Ridge is nearing the tail-end of its season, with three matchups left in the schedule against Boulder Creek, Pinnacle and Perry. Mountain Ridge still sits in the top spot of the 6A Desert Valley region and is ranked third in the 6A conference heading into their next matchup against Boulder Creek, who sit at 1-5 in conference play. 

“Obviously there were some things this week we didn't do well and we'll go to work,” Bonine said. “We got four days to catch our breath for a second.We try to practice at a high intensity and we'll go get some work done and get ready to finish strong and go into playoffs.”

With a lineup that consists of a healthy mix of upper and lower classmen, the Mountain Lions have a talented group with undeniable chemistry that’s helped propel their success this season to make a deep run in the playoffs.  

“I'm confident if we all do our own thing, and we all do our thing as a team and we all stick together, I think we could do well,” Cottrell said.

“Our practices are going great with our hitting and defense so I trust our team to go far in the playoffs and do some damage,” Bailey agreed.