Mesquite's pitching continued to dazzle in the Division I state baseball tournament and with a couple of three-hit innings that produced all its runs the Wildcats are in the championship game for the second sucessive year.

Jake Suddreth a 6-foot-2 senior, earned his second tournament win with a strong performance that nearly went the distance as Mesquite topped upstart and No. 12 seed Mountain RIdge, 5-3, in the battle of tourney unbeatens at Diablo Stadium.

Mesquite (23-9) rests until Tuesday (May 19) when it faces the elimination-game winner Saturday (May 16) between Liberty (29-5) and Mountain Ridge (24-10). Liberty and Mountain Ridge play at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. Liberty stayed alive knocking out defending champion Hamilton, 2-1, in the early game Thursday at Diablo. Mesquite will be appearing in its third title game in school history. It lost in 2008 and 2014 to longtime nemesis Hamilton.

Suddreth, using a delivery much like that of Arizona Diamondbacks' pitcher Josh Collmenter, tossed six shutout innings before faltering a bit in the seventh. Suddreth had a two-hitter going to the seventh, but a pair of infied errors, a hit batter and two solid hits brought life to Mountain Ridge. Mountain Ridge's Mitchel Sullivan, who has been a clutch hitter in postseason, had a two-run double and Tristan Thomas a run-scoring single.

That rally pulled the Mountain Lions within 5-3 with one out and two on. Mesquite coach Jeff Holland needed a little time for Cobe Karhoff to warm-up and subbed Karhoff in to halt the two-on, one-out jam. Karholff got a pop out and a comebacker to finish off the victory.

"We had some errors in that last inning and got a little ahead of ourselves," Holland said "Sudds has been lights out for us. He's kept us in every game, every time out."

Suddreth allowed four hits, walked one and struck out six. He was aided by two double plays -- one in the third and one in the fourth -- after Mountain Ridge's leadoff hitter each inning reached base. Two offthe three runs Suddreth allowed in the final inning were unearned.

Offensively, Suddreth got support in the second and fourth innings. A three-run second was highlighted by back-to-back triples by Noah Cordova and Tyler Jorgensen. Cordova's three-bagger scored Carson Burton, who singled to start the rally. Jorgensen brought in Cordova. The third run of the frame scored on a infield error.

Mesquite made it 5-0 in the fourth. Jorgensen reached on an error and Brit Fiztgerald and Alex Murrietta plated runs with RBI singles off Mountain Ridge starter Tommy Lowe.