Battle of Ahwatukee (baseball) won by Mountain Pointe

March 30, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


A day after its 14-game home run streak came to an end, Mountain Pointe started another one.

After getting shut out for the first three innings on Wedneday afternoon by rival Desert Vista, Mountain Pointe erupted for 16 runs over the final four innings and posted a come-from-behind 16-8 win in a 5A non-region baseball game at Desert Vista.

Mountain Pointe (13-4) got a three-run homer in the fourth inning from Anthony Balderrama that led to a four-run rally and erased a 4-0 deficit. Mountain Pointe homered three more times in the contest, including back-to-back solo shots from Kevin Cron and Joey Curletta in the fifth, that snapped a tie and put the Pride ahead to stay, 6-4. Mountain Pointe has homered in 15 of its 17 games and has 45 homers for the season.

It was the 13th homer of the year for Cron, who was 4-for-5 at the plate and went six innings on the mound to earn the victory. Curletta's homer was his ninth and Balderrama's his sixth (five RBIs total for the day). Scott Kingery's three-run homer in the seventh hightlighted a six-run outburst that put a halt to any ideas of a Desert Vista comeback after the Thunder pulled within 10-7 heading to the seventh.

"This is the second game in a row we were shut out the first three innings," Mountain Pointe coach Brandon Buck said. "We didn't score until the fourth (Tuesday's 10-1 win over Perry), and didn't hit a home run. (Hitting) can happen with us 1 through 9. It's  contagious."

Mountain Pointe managed just two hits through the first three innings off Desert Vista left-hander Hunter Rodriguez  and found itself down 4-0 in part due to shoddy fielding. RBIs by Casey Thomas and Shaun Chase in the second led the Thunder's fast start.

But over the next two-plus innings Mountain Pointe got to Rodriguez collecting 10 hits and scoring eight runs off him. Rodriguez was chased in the sixth innning by the second of three singles on the day by No. 9 hitter Quinn Tucker, who finished with four RBIs.

Desert Vista, which won on Tuesday with a fine pitching performance against Mesa High, 4-1, couldn't get the pitching it had the day before for the same duration.

"They swing the bat very well," Desert Vista coach Stan Luketich said. "They're hard to hold down."

Desert Vista is 8-11 on the year and returns to Fiesta Region play at  Mesa on Thursday. Mountain Pointe continues East Valley Region play at home on Thursday against Marcos de Niza.