Ashley Stevens is a Master's student at ASU/Cronkite School of Journalism assigned to cover Mountain Ridge High School for AZPreps365.com

GLENDALE– The Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions are the Desert Valley Region baseball champions after beating Chaparral on Monday night, 7-2, taking the latter game of the two-game series. With the win, Mountain Ridge breaks the tiebreaker, standing with an 8-2 record in the region, 14-4 overall. The Mountain Lions have a four-day break before their playoff debut at 11a.m. on Saturday. 

The Mountain Lions earned the win for their senior-heavy lineup on senior night, battling in a close game that stood 1-1 after four innings of play against the Firebirds. The Mountain Ridge bats bats broke open the scoring in the bottom of the fifth, with the home squad batting through the lineup, plating four runs. 

“Obviously you want these guys to end their regular season careers on a high note,” Mountain Ridge head coach Eddie Bonine said. “The goal is still playoffs and going forward but for these guys to win a region title on their senior night is cool.”

Capitalizing off an infield that had shifted towards the right side of the field, keeping its corners back, Shaun Cottrell and Jake Jacaruso each reached first base on bunts, setting up a bases loaded, no-outs plate appearance for senior catcher Zach Yorke. 

Senior Shaun Cottrell on first base after reaching on a bunt. Cottrell went 1-for-2 on the day with two runs scored. (Ashley Stevens Photo/ AZPreps365)

Yorke singled on a line drive to right field, bringing home Cooper Holtorf who pinch-ran for Ameer McGee. This after the center fielder had to be taken out of the game after taking a pitch to the head leading off the bottom of the fifth. 

In another bases loaded, no outs situation, Josh Wakefield hit a ground ball to Chaparral's Liu Rodriguez. The shortstop took the force out at second base, bringing home Cottrell for the second run of the inning. 

Senior Aj Singer followed suit with a base hit to right-center field, plating Jacaruso for the third run. Neville reached first base on an error by Rodriguez, allowing Wakefield to score from third before Chaparral’s Tyler Hansen worked Cannon Peery into a double play to end the inning.

“I knew Wakefield would get the job done behind me, and then AJ after him,” Yorke said. “Hitting lead off today, I knew my job was to get on base and trust the guys behind me.”

“It was a bullpen day for them, because they didn't know if they were gonna play Wednesday or Saturday,” Singer said. “They're a great team. We were expecting great arms no matter what, so whatever they had we were gonna hit.”

With a 5-2 lead heading into the top of the sixth, senior left-hander Josh Wakefield had another stand-out relief performance, striking out four Firebirds in three innings of work. Wakefield went 1-for-2 at the plate with two RBIs. Despite getting beaned by a pitch in the third inning in the ribcage, the senior was all smiles postgame.

Senior Josh Wakefield making his third straight pitching appearance in three games. Wakefield entered in the fifth inning, with a runner on first. (Ashley Stevens Photo/ AZPreps365)“I had so much fun,” Wakefield said. “Definitely my favorite game. A lot of fun and senior night was awesome. Got hit in the lungs my second at bat, did not feel good and could not breathe well, but just got to stick through it and play ball.” 

Sophomore pitcher Jackson Forbes started on the hill for the last game of the regular season for Mountain Ridge. He went four innings, striking out three, walking three, and allowing two runs to cross the board, only one of them earned. 

Ethan Hott, Jackson Estes, Jackson Babione, and Aidan Young, who accumulated six hits and plated all seven runs for the Firebirds in the previous game at home for their senior night against Mountain Ridge, went a collective 0-for-4 against Forbes, with Hott and Young each earning a walk in the mix. 

The only runs crossing the plate for Chaparral came in the fourth and fifth innings, with a solo shot sent over the right-center field fence to lead off the fourth inning by senior Colin Christensen. Babione plated senior Andrew Mings on a sacrifice fly to right field who walked in the fifth just before Forbes handed the ball off to Wakefield. 

“I think the key today was trusting my fastball and knowing that I'm going to beat most of those guys with the stuff that I have,” Forbes said. “Trusting that, putting it in the zone, and trusting my defense is the ultimate goal and it worked out.”

Two specific seniors Forbes was sentimental about on senior night were Singer and Yorke. 

“(Singer) helped me a lot last year during my freshman year and he really helped me get more comfortable,” Forbes said. “Zach’s just been a big teddy bear. A big guy to love on this season and he’s really good with all the guys.”

Forbes, like the rest of his teammates, welcomed the senior transfer, Yorke, who made the move from California to Arizona this year, with open arms. Batting lead-off, Yorke went 2-for-3 and had an RBI in the win on his senior night and has stepped into his leadership role effortlessly with his easy-going energy.

“I love sharing the field with these guys and I'm excited to do it during playoffs,” Yorke beamed. “They welcomed me just like family here. It's just really nice being a part of such a tight knit group and really good baseball players.”

“There's not a single guy that's not wanting the guy next to him to have success,” Bonine said. “That's tough to have, no matter what level it is, no matter what age group. There's always that selfishness that creeps in and this group has done a really good job of rooting for each other, playing for each other, picking each other up and just being selfless.”

The playoff bracket will be released Tuesday afternoon, where the 9-24 seeds begin their play-in contests on Wednesday, leaving the 1-8 seeds to begin competition on Saturday.