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 bid their senior class farewell after falling to rivals Sandra Day O’Connor 9-3 in their third and final playoff game of the 6A State Championship playoffs, suffering their second loss in the bid for a state title. 

On Tuesday  Sandra Day O’Connor had scored nine runs in the last two innings of play in a come from behind, 9-8, win against Desert Vista to continue its playoff run. On Thursday the Eagles pounced early, scoring six runs in the first inning against their sister school, Mountain Ridge. 

The Eagles sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning, with the lineup squeezing seven singles in the frame. O’Connor put the ball in play consecutively, finding holes in the field and legging out infield singles. Mountain Ridge couldn’t seem to stop the bleeding.

“Obviously it's not the way you want to start in the game,” Mountain Ridge head coach Eddie Bonine said. “There were physical mistakes, mental mistakes, and you have to remember, they're 16 to 18 year old guys that are gonna make mistakes. Unfortunately, a few mistakes cost us some runs, and they did a good job capitalizing on them.” 

Kolt Kurzman, Ky McGary, and Hustyn Wheeler each had themselves multi-hit days for the Eagles. Kurzman, who started at second base, went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the first inning, plating Butler who reached base on a ground ball up the middle. Senior center fielder McGary went 2-for-4, batting in the cleanup spot, with a run scored and a two-RBI single to right field, just over the reach of first baseman Cannon Peery. 

Mountain Ridge sophomore right hander Jackson Forbes struck out Kurzman to start the game before the Eagles rallied to break open the scoring.

The Mountain Lions went down in order in the bottom of the first inning. In the second inning senior left-hander Josh Wakefield came in relief. Wakefield retired the next six batters, pitching the remainder of the game. 

Mountain Ridge tried to chip away at the deficit, scoring one in the bottom of the second inning. Senior right fielder Shaun Cottrell hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Wakefield, who had reached base on a single. 

“(Wakefield) has done that all year for us,” Bonine said. “He was obviously a first team all region guy and it was based on both sides of the baseball. He did a great job. That's the most pitches he's thrown all year. He did a heck of a job keeping us there and giving us a chance to get back.”

Senior Zach Yorke sent a no-doubt home run over the right-center field wall in the bottom of the third in his second plate appearance to make it 6-2 in favor of O’Connor. 

“He's started me off with two straight fastballs out of the zone,” Yorke said. “So I was just sitting on another fastball and just took a short quick swing to it and got all of it.” 

The Eagles scored three runs in the fourth inning to halt Mountain Ridge's momentum. A two-run single off the bat of McGary scored Wheeler and Kurzman from third and second base. Sophomore Jake Sanco scored from third on a passed ball for the third run of the frame.

With the score 9-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, senior Aj Singer led off the frame with a base hit up the middle. Singer, who was voted 6A Desert Valley Region Offensive Player of the Year, had lined out his first two at bats and walked his third time up at the plate.

Senior Aj Singer up to bat in the bottom of the 1st inning. Singer went 1-for-3 with a walk, and a run scored. Singer had three put outs at shortstop in his last game for Mountain Ridge. (Ashley Stevens Photo/ AZPreps 365)“He was our catalyst all year,” Bonine complimented. “He did a great job from start to finish, on and off the field. Whoever, wherever he ends up going and playing beyond Mountain Ridge baseball, he's gonna be a great asset. He's gonna have a bright future.”

Jackson Forbes followed suit, sparking a two-out rally with a double down the right field line, scoring Singer from first. Junior right-hander Josh Butler retired Wakefield with a 4-3 put out to end the game and seal O’Connor’s victory to move on in the 6A State Championship playoffs. 

Cennedy Murrell in the bottom of the third inning. Murrel earned the win, only giving up two runs to help O'Connor move on in the 6A State playoffs. (Ashley Stevens Photo/ AZPreps365)

Senior Cennedy Murrell got the win for the Eagles, throwing 98 pitches in five innings while giving up just five hits, two earned runs, walking four and striking out three before junior Josh Butler came in relief giving up one hit and striking out four.

“Jeff (Baumgartner) does a great job,” Bonine said. “That's always been a good program and a lot of respect for those guys.”

Mountain Ridge is sending off nine seniors, two of which are Division I commits in Jace Smith and Zach Yorke who are both off to Grand Canyon University. Senior outfielder Shaun Cottrell is heading to Regis University to continue his baseball career at the Division II school in Colorado. 

“As a coach, you dream of zero issues, zero selfishness, and guys that just want to pick each other up and play hard, and they did that,” Bonine said. “The senior class set the standard for their program that I'm leading to live up to for the juniors and the sophomores and the freshmen that are a part of this program. So they obviously started a legacy of what senior leadership looks like here.”

Eddie Bonine was recognized as the Coach of the Year in the 6A Desert Valley Region, after leading Mountain Ridge as one of the top teams in the state of Arizona for majority of the season, sending them to playoff contention and winning the 6A Desert Valley Region title for the 2021-2022 season. 

Zach Yorke, Josh Wakefield, and Cooper Neville all earned first-team honors, with Jackson Forbes, Smith Bailey, Jace Smith, and Ameer McGee earning second team. Shaun Cottrell and Cannon Peery were named honorable mentions for the region. 

“I'm just so thankful for them,” said Yorke, who moved to Glendale from southern California before his senior year. “They really welcomed me like family and I can't thank them enough.”

“We're gonna see each other go but we were gonna keep in contact with everyone,” Singer said.”I hated to see (the season) go but loved the journey the whole time.”

Mountain Ridge will be looking at juniors such as Cooper Neville, Cannon Peery, Carson McEntire, Jake Jacaruso, Cooper Holtorf and sophomores Jackson Forbes and Smith Bailey to lead the charge for the 2022-2023 season. 

Seventh seed,Sandra Day O’Connor is set to face the second-seeded Alhambra Lions at Alhambra High school at 4 p.m. on Saturday.