Desert Mountain Softball Invite final four is set

March 19, 2016 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


The final four at the 19th annual Desert Mountain Softball Invitational is set with the top four seeds advancing on Friday iafternoon in the opening round of bracket play at Horizon Park.

Top-seed Desert Vista, the lone unbeaten team in the tournament, continued to dominate with a 13-0 win over No. 8 Chaparral. Pitcher Brooke Hughes shut down Chaparral and got plenty of help offensively. Rion Simms ripped a game slam and drove in six runs and Kaylee Dietrich chipped in with five RBI. Hughes pitched a two-hiiter and has won three games this week. She blanked D-II power Canyon del Oro on two hits Monday, delivered a one-hit shutout of Mountain Pointe on Thursday and Friday's opening-round whitewash of Chaparral. Desert Vista has shut out three of its five opponents in the tournament and has allowed eight runs in five tournament games. Desert Vista squares off Saturday (March 19) at 2 p.m. in the championship semis against No. 4 seed Hamilton.

Hamilton avenged its only loss of the tournament on Friday, edging Iolani (Honolulu, HI), 6-4. In the rematch, played less than 24 hours after the Huskies lost 4-3 in pool play, Hamilton prevailed with free passes by Iolani pitching and later with the long ball.

Iolani's Marley Dyer issued three walks and hit a batter in the third inning helpng Hamilton score twice to snap a tie and take a 3-1 lead. Karlee Arnold was hit by a pitch for force in a run and Taylor Gindlesperger followed with walk to plate another. Iolani pulled within 4-3 in the fifth, but Hamilton got those runs back on consecutive solo homers by Gindlesperger and pinch-hitter Kim Slaughter. Chey Noli, earned the win as the starter with three innings of work. Madison Seigworth pitched the final three innings.

No. 2 Sahuaro advanced to the semis with a 4-2 victory over No. 7 Cactus, the second time the teams met in the tournament. Both meetings were similar with Sahuaro winning the first one, 3-2. Sahuaro's Lexy Coons went the distance in both games. Coons allowed just two hits, two walks and fanned six. Lauren Wedman, who has pitched two wins for Sahuaro in the tournament (Corona del Sol and Highand), had the key hit -- a two-run double that snapped a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning. Wedman was 2-4. Teammates Ashley Bradford and Hailey Ward were 3-4 and 2-4, respectively. Cactus has been stingy the entire tournament in terms of pitching, giving up 14 runs in five games. The four Sahuaro scored on Friday were the most coach Bartt Underwood's team surrendered in any of its games.

No. 3 Pinnacle bounced back from its only loss of the tournament on Thursday to Desert Vista (8-6) with a come-from-behind 10-6 triumph over No. 6 Ironwood Ridge to reach a 2 p.m. semifinal date Saturday with Sahuaro at Horizon Park.  Pinnacle overcame a 5-0 deficit in the fifth inning scoring five runs in that frame and adding five more in the sixth for a 10-5 lead. 

Kylie Fawcett figured in both five-run rallies for Pinnacle with an RBI single in the fifth and two-run single in the sixth. McKenna Adams capped the 10-run scoring burst with a two-run single in the sixth. Adams finished with three hits. Pinnacle took the lead for good and for the first time in the bottom of the sixth on a leadoff home run by Jessica Mabrey.

 Ironwood Ridge's big hit was a grand slam in the fifth by Annika Baez. Teammate Isabel Pacho hit a solo homer in the seventh.