An elimination game.  A tie game. Someone needed to step up. That someone Wednesday afternoon at Sandra Day O' Connor High School was Westview catcher Sianna Gomez.

Gomez picked off a Perry High runner at second base to help the Knights escape a sixth-inning jam and then drilled a hit that started a game-winning rally for her team in the seventh as No. 13 Westview nipped No. 8 Perry, 3-2, to stay alive in the 5A-II state softball tournament.

Westview, which lost its first-round game to Pinnacle and stayed alive Tuesday with a win over Betty Fairfax, survives to play again on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Sandra Day O'Connor . The Knights will match up a second time with Pinnacle, a 9-1 winner over 2010 state champ Centennial in another elimination game. This is the first softball state tournament visit for Westview since 2005.

"She did that on her own," Westview coach Damon Watson said of Gomez's crafty, sixth-inning pickoff. "She's got the green light to do that pretty much all game. She did when it happened today."

Westview (23-9) trailed 2-0 most of the game, but got a two-out, two-run single from Kylie Andrus in the top of the sixth to tie the game. In the bottom of the inning Perry had runners at first and second with two out and 3-0 count on No. 2 hitter Laynee Gomez. Westview pitcher Brae Roy threw a strike to make it 3-1 and in the blink of an eye the Knights were headed to the dugout securing the third out on the pickoff. A walk to Laynee Gomez would have loaded the bases for Perry's No. 3 hitter Jillian Leslie, who already had two hits and had driven in one of Perry's runs.

Westview was able to carry the momentum of scoring twice in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 2 on Kylie Andrus' two-out, two-run single to the top of the seventh, especially after Sianna Gomez' pickoff. Gomez then started a two-out, noone on rally in the top of the seventh off Perry reliever Tori Herzberg with a sharp single to left, Sianna Gomez' third hit of the game.

After a stolen base put the go-ahead run in scoring position at second, Roy hit a routine bouncer to second. Perry second baseman Becca Aguallo bobbled the ball and then recovered. Rather than keeping it, she rushed an errant throw to first  that put Westview in front 3-2.

Roy, a senior and workhorse of the staff the last three seasons, scattered seven hits, walked three and struck out three. She managed her only 1-2-3 inning of the game in the seventh, retiring Perry's 2-3-4 hitters to close it out.

"Our nemesis all year has been defense and our mental game," Perry coach Allison Robinson said. "We were the No. 8 seed in this tournament, but our mental game made us more like a No. 30 seed. We had a similar play last night (vs. Horizon) allow them to score a run and beat us 2-1. We make the play last night and the play today I think we would have won both games.... but we didn't."

Leslie, Mandi Grebe an Erycka Ruiz led Perry with two hits apiece. The Pumas, the 5A East Valley Region champs, finished their season 24-10.