Tyler Viza was the last of six South pitchers Sunday afternoon (June 2) and up to the task of holding down the North in the eighth and ninth innings to pace the Division I South all-stars to an 8-5 victory over the North in the annual Arizona Baseball Coaches Association All-Star game at Surprise Stadium.

Viza, who has signed with the University of Utah and is headed there this fall, capped a string of strikeout-pitching for the South. Viza entered in the top of the eighth after his teammates struck for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 4. He got the South back in the dugout with a 1-2-3 eighth, fanning two of the three hitters he faced. Gilbert High's Josh Moore broke the 4-4 tie in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single and Red Mountain's Andrew Apodaca lifted a sacrifice fly to left for an insurance run that gave Viza breathing room in the ninth. Viza was the winning pitcher and Boulder Creek's Riley Joyce took the loss.

Viza gave up a run in the ninth (an unearned run) as the South committed two errors in the inning. Viza struck out two more hitters, including Millennium's Hunter Brock looking with the go-ahead runs at second and third. Viza got to hit in the bottom of the ninth and added a single to this day in his lone at-bat.

"You can't go wrong with it," Viza said a few minutes after being handed the Most Valuable Player plaque. "It most definitely pumped me up when we got the runs to tie the game. Then we got the lead and I had to finish. I've been in that position a lot this year so it wasn't new."

The South pitching staff (Highland's Ethan Evanko, Basha's Austin Casillas, Tucson's Alex Robles, Perry's Justin Schander, Desert Ridge's Skyler Cohn and Viza) combined to strike out 14. The South never led until it scored twice in the eighth. Mountain Pointe's Michael Weaver and Desert Vista's Colby Woodmansee singled and walked, respectively, to begin the game-winning rally and ended up scoring the tie-breaking and insurance runs on Moore's hit and Apocaca's fly ball.

The North used a couple of home runs to grab leads in the first and sixth. Desert Mountain catcher Ben Rodriguez launched a two-run homer -- a 390-footblast to left-center -- for a 2-0 lead. After the South scratched together runs in the second (an RBI double by Buena's Darick Hall) and fourth (an RBI single by Cibola's Sebastian Valenzuela), Joyce homered without the ball leaving the yard. His blast to deep center tipped off the glove of Mesa's Brock Hale and rolled away along the warning track toward right field. By the time the ball was thrown in, Joyce had an inside-the-park homer. Back-to-back doubles by McClintock's Preston Ryan and Cesar Chavez's Ismael Bracamontes pulled the North back in front, 4-2. 

Ryan led the North with two doubles and Pinnacle's Parker Manahan had two singles. Hale was 2-for-4 for the South with two RBI, including a game-tying double in the seventh.