Kai Murphy has clearly performed as Red Mountain's ace, this pitch on Monday vs. Westwood. (AzPreps365 photo)

 

Kai Murphy kept throwing up zeroes Monday afternoon and his Red Mountain teammates supported him with a two-out rally mid-game that turns head coaches gray.

Murphy scattered eight hits over six shutout innings as Red Mountain opened East Valley Region play with a 10-0 victory over Westwood in a 6A game at Red Mountain.

Murphy, a junior left-hander, gave up four earned runs in his first start back in late February. He's made five starts since throwing 32 innings without allowing an earned run. The one run he gave up in that stretch was unearned against Corna del Sol in a 4-1 win on Feb. 28. Murphy walked three and struck out seven in his final start of March. Murphy's earned-run average for the season is 0.80.

Red Mountain is now 10-7 overall and 6-2 in power-ranking games.  Westwood  is 8-5 overall and 3-4 in power-ranking contests.The first power-rankings of the season will be released Tuesday morning so teams will have a better idea where they stand with roughly half the power-point games left for most schools.

Murphy surrendered four hits in the first three innings, but the only trouble he was in was the first when Westwood's first two hitters singled. Murphy got out of the inning picking off a runner at first.

Meahwhile, Westwood right-hander Jimmy Villa came close to solving Red Mountain without blemish the first time through the order. He retired the first eight batters and was ahead 0-2 on the Mountain Lions' ninth-place hitter, Randy Hutson. Hutson grounded a ball -- not sharply -- a bit to the second-base side of second. With Westwood playing Hutson more toward the hole the ball rolled into center for a base hit. Hutson was batting .167 coming into the game. He finished the day 2 for 2 and was hit by a pitch. Plenty of trouble followed after what appeared would be an innocuous single by the Mountain Lions' catcher.

Murphy was up next and hit by a pitch as the batting order turned over. The hit by pitch was the first of six batters Villa hit in his four innings of work. Luke Hyzdu followed with an RBI single to left an Austin Duffy wwas plunked to load the bases. Cleanup hitter Riley Pagel  delivered the game's big blow a three-run double lined over the right fielder's head. Andrew Hayes and SAm Clow completed the rally with RBI doubles to make it 6-0 after three.

Duffy added a two-run double in the fourth and Hyzdu a run-scoring single in the fifth. Tyler Rice ended the contest with a single to right with one out in the bottom of the sixth.

This is a three-game week for both schools. Red Mountain heads to Yuma Tuesday to face Kofa. Westwood host Pinnacle on Tuesday and then hosts a rematch with Red Mountain on Thursday.