Red Mountain tallied seven times in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday night to finish off Mesa High, 14-4, in a Division I baseball battle between city rivals. The real damage -- and likely the turning point -- took place an inning prior.

Red Mountain scored three runs with two-outs and noone on in the last of the fourth inning to answer Mesa's High's three-run rally in the top of the frame and that had the feel of a bubble-burster. Red Mountain is now 6-10 overall, but more importantly 3-3 in power-ranking games. Mesa High, coming off an 11-10 victory on Wednesday over Chaparral that boosted the Jackrabbits' spirit, fell to 8-6, 2-3 prg.

Red Mountain cranked out 11 hits, received six walks and got a little help from four Mesa errors. Jacob Stobart led Red Mountain with three hits and walk in four plate appearances. Adam Stebbins added three hits and three RBI and ended the game with his third hit. Drew Willis and Sam Berry had three RBI as well. Josh White collected two RBI after entering the game in the fourth inning.

On the pitching front, senior Casey Hershey made his 2015 pitching debut with a win and  2 and 2/3  scoreless innings in a starting role.  Hershey is Red Mountain's top returning pitcher and had been sidelined due to injury. 

Red Mountain, which had one of the better teams and pitchers in the Valley on the ropes in Perry High and Tyler Watson on Tuesday, let
Perry off the hook with a disastrous final inning in a 7-6 loss. That didn't carry over Friday as Red Mountain tagged Mesa starter Tony Eto for four runs in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead.

Mesa dug deep in the fourth to make it a game, scoring three runs with two outs.  A bases-loaded walk to Tim Montoya and a two-run single from Eto pared the lead to 4-3. Eto was relieved in the fourth by JJ Reeves and the sophomore left-hander got the first two outs Mesa seemed primed to get back in the dugout with a one-run deficit and momentum.

Red Mountain had other ideas as Berry, Stobart and White laced consecutive singles to plate one run and Willis added two more with a double to left. With the lead back to four runs at 7-3, Mesa chipped away with a run, but a base-running error sabotaged the inning. Red Mountain followed by sending 12 batters to the plate in the fifth and scored in one inning what it took four innings to do earlier.

Prior to the game the Mesa district honored Mesa High assistant coach Tom Pagel with a plaque for his 22 years of service as an assistant coach at Westwood with son, Ross, and at Mesa High the last decade. Those years are in addition to 32 Tom Pagel (who is 85 years old) spent in the Glendale district from 1960 to 1992. A nice night for the Pagels, as Ross is head coach at Red Mountain and his son, Riley, plays on Red Mountain's varsity.