By Don Ketchum

With real storm clouds circling overhead, the perfect softball storm carried Glendale Mountain Ridge to a big 1-0 Class 5A Northwest Region road victory over Glendale Deer Valley on Wednesday.

Mountain Ridge, No. 5 in 5A-I power rankings entering the week, climbed to 16-5. Deer Valley, No. 4 in 5A-II power rankings, fell to 18-6.

Mountain Ridge pitcher Sydney Gaffin was locked in a scoreless duel with Deer Valley star Lauren Haeger until Mountain Ridge scored its run in the top of the sixth inning.

With one out, Maddie Handy, the top hitter in coach Michele Markham’s batting order, plunked a single to shallow right field. Danielle Reynolds put down a perfect sacrifice bunt, sending Handy to second as Haeger fielded the ball and fired to second baseman Beani Johnson, who was covering first.

Corrin Green hit a single to right-center to score Handy.

"It was just the way you would draw it up,'' Markham said.

“It was a nail-biter. “It was a huge win for us.

“We talked last week about setting goals, writing them down on paper. As the game went on, you could see how focused they were.’’

As for defeating Haeger, one of the state’s best pitchers, Markham said, “We accomplished Step 1. Now we have to worry about Step 2 when we play them again at the end of the month.’’

Mountain Ridge escaped what could have been serious trouble in the bottom of the sixth.

Deer Valley leadoff hitter Brooke Homsey hit a drive to deep left field that appeared to be headed out of the park. But Mountain Ridge left fielder Megan Werbach caught the ball at the last second in front of the fence. Her head then grazed the fence, leaving a small bump.

The play was magnified even more when Deer Valley got a couple of two-out hits. But Gaffin got out of it by getting a strikeout as the ball settled in the mitt of her catcher (and twin sister) Brandi Gaffin.

Deer Valley had a run taken off the board in the third inning when the base umpire ruled that a Deer Valley baserunner interfered with second baseman Rhyeca Riley as she attempted to field a ground ball. There was no contact between runner and fielder.

Haeger did her best to try to keep her team in the game with a pair of hits, the second an infield hit on a bad hop off shortstop Ashley Soos’ glove with two outs in the seventh. But Sydney Gaffin finished the game by picking up her 10^th strikeout.

“Our pitcher certainly did her job. We just left too many people on base. No timely hitting (the Skyhawks had six hits). That’s been a problem for us,’’ said Deer Valley coach Carl Bakemeier.

He said his team will go back to work.

“We had been coasting for awhile, so this shows us that we’re not invincible. Sometimes losing is not necessarily a bad thing,’’ he said.