The workhorses were out again Thursday afternoon for Mountain Pointe and Desert Vista.

For Mountain Pointe it was lefty Zach Cordova. For Desert Vista it was Tyler Viza. Both pitched well enough to win, but a nightmare fifth-inning from Desert Vista's defense spelled the difference in a 5-3 victory for Mountain Pointe in a Division I baseball winners' bracket game at Phoenix Municiipal Stadium. 

No. 14 Mountain Pointe (22-7) advances to the winners bracket semifiinals on Saturday May 4 at 4 p.m. at Tempe Diablo Stadium. The Pride take on No. 2 Tucson High, a 6-1 winner over Chaparral. No. 22 Desert Vista heads to the losers' bracket where it plays Saturday May 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Phoenix Muny. The Thunder face No. 10 Chaparral.

A four-run rally by Mountain Pointe -- with two outs and noone on in the bottom of the fifth -- turned the tide as the Pride overcame a 1-0 deficit and was able to get to Viza. Mountain Pointe added what turned out to be an insurance run in the sixth with a two-out rally.

Viza, who was the winning pitcher in relief in each of Desert Vista's first two tournament games and has thrown 12 1/3 innings thus far, was cruising with a two-hit shutout after fanning the first two hitters in the fifth. No. 8 hitter Taylor Martin lined a shot to the gap in right-center that Thunder right fielder Austin Hicks ran far to get to, but seemed to lose in the sun at the last second.

With Martin at second, No. 9 hitter Tommy Martinez, a sophomore, came through with the first of two key hits. His single brought in the tying run and prolonged the inning. A walk and tie-breaking single by Cole Tucker on an 0-2 pitch made it  2-1. Desert Vista then committed three successive errors on routine plays allowing Mountain Pointe to tack on two more runs.

Viza went the distance (six innings) allowing three earned runs (five total), seven hits and fanning six.

"It was a bad defensive inning," Desert Vista coach Stan Luketich said. ...."We had opportunities early to score more than we did. We had some bad at-bats with men on base. You can attribute that to their pitching."

Cordova, who went five innings Thursday (12 in the tournament) and has pitched in all three tourney games, picked up his second win and has a save in the other. Cordova opened with two 1-2-3 innings, but was roughed up for five hits the next two. Both innings Desert Vista had runner(s) in scoring position with no outs, but could tally just once. Cordova allowed two hits to begin the sixth with a 4-1 lead in hand. Mountain Pointe coach Brandon Buck summoned Brantley Bell for relief and the senior second baseman supplied it.

Bell  gave up a sacrifice fly and a base hit to score his inherited runners, but fanned four in two scoreless innings. He struck out the side in the seventh.

"In postseasonball you have to put it in play," Buck said. "I know its kind of cliche, but it's true. We were able to do it against a good pitcher."

Mountain Pointe has played solid defense most of the year and did so again Thursday with an errorless outing.

"If you don't make the routine plays, you have to have something great  to happen," Buck said. "Our seniors have been awesome. Zach with 12 innings, Brantley, Michael Weaver. And we had a sophomore (Martinez) have a day."