Baseball: Mtn. View completes 3-0 week, holds off Cibola

March 28, 2014 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Mesa Mountain View finished off a good week Friday with a its third win in four days. The Toros didn't beat any high echelon teams, but the manner in which they won contests was important from coach Mike Thiel's perspective. Mountain View's third win this week was a 6-5 brow-wiper over Cibola at Toro Field.

"We played real well the first two games this week," Thiel said of wins over Dobson and Camelback. "Today we didn't execute a few plays we should have that would have made it easier. Had a couple base-running mistakes. Cibola came up here and battled."

Battle Cibola (2-9 overall, 2-7 power-ranking games) did, especially after absorbing a 13-3 loss the day before to Gila Ridge and then taking the 3-hour trip to Mesa. The Raiders, who lost for the third time in as many games this week, outhit Mountain View, 15-11. They had the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the seventh before Toros' pitcher Seth Nordlin induced a a fly out to right to end the game. Nordlin gave up one run in three innings of relief of starter and winner Brent Bailey to earn the save.

Mountain View's offense was highlighted by the senior duo of Ronnie Adair and Chase Anderson. Adair was 4-for-4, scored twice and drove in two runs. Adair's two-out, bunt single in the bottom of the sixth ended with him at second base after a wild throw. Anderson followed with an RBI single to cap a 2-for-3 effort and 3 RBI. That run made it 6-4 Mountain View and proved to be the difference.

It's always nice to go to the seventh up two than up one," Thiel said. "It was very important today." 

Cibola's biggest downfall was leaving too many runners on base. The Raiders left 13 runners stranded, including the bases loaded in the fifth and seventh that saw them score just one run combined in those frames. Not a good way to support freshman pitchers Jaime Ponce and Oscar Ron in their varsity debuts.

"We're a team trying to find its way," veteran Cibola coach Duane Evans, who took over the reins at Cibola when Thiel left there nearly two decades ago. "We gave a good effort today. We gave a couple freshman pitchers a look. They're not overpowering, but they did a decent job. With all the runners we had on, we didn't do a good job knocking them in."

The Vega's -- Adan and Alan - paced Cibola's 15-hit attack. Alan was 2-for-5 and drove in three runs. Adan was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Martin Mendez added three hits and Manny Molina and Steven Rainey two hits each.

Mountain View opened this week 8-7, 2-2 prg. The power-ranking game record is a more robust 5-2. However, with April bringing on the likes of Brophy, Desert Vista, Horizon, Chaparral, Perry and Mesquite, playing .500 or better vs. those teams will be a must if the Toros have plans for games come May.