A 10-4 victory would usually result in the winning coach wearing a broad smile.

Mesa Mountain View baseball coach Mike Thiel did not have more than half a grin after his Toros topped visiting Mountain Ridge on Tuesday afternoon at Toro Field.

Mountain View pounded out 12 hits, collected six walks and did not strike out once. Certainly a good enough effort offensively to produce the 10 runs it scored. Other facets took away from what was the Toros seventh win in nine outings.

"Our baserunning was not very good," Thiel said. "A little too casual trying to turn a double play in an inning  (fourth). All of a sudden a game we're dominating (4-0) is dang close (4-3). We have to do some things better."

Mountain View ace Hayden Rogers, a senior left-hander,  was not as good as he can be, but solid enough to go six innings and give up three hits, three runs (one earned) in picking up his first win of the year in his second start. Rogers helped himself at the plate with going 2-for-2 with 2 RBIs.

"He had a pretty good day, but walks hurt him last week and they did again today,"Thiel said. "We know he's a very good pitcher. His pitch count has been too high with the walks, and we haven't helped that with some errors."

Mountain Ridge, a 5A-I state qualifier as the No. 9 seed a year ago, has struggled the first two weeks of the season. The Mountain Lions dropped to 2-6 with the loss (only 0-2 in power-point games). Coach Tommy Eubanks used five pitchers and watched a two-out, missed pop-up in the sixth lead to four extra runs for Mountain View.  Mountain View headed to the final inning up 10-3, rather than 6-3.

Nick Morales, Zach Hyzdu and Willie Ethington had two hits each for Mountain View. Teammate Hunter Bryce drove in two runs without a hit and Nate Hutchins clubbed the game's only home run.

Houston Samuel, who started on the mound for Mountain Ridge and took the loss, led the Mountain LIons with two of their six hits.

 

Mountain View (7-2) was a .500 team a year ago and qualified for the 5A-I state tournament as the No. 15 seed with an almost totally new starting lineup. This year everyday players and the pitching staff are almost entirely the same so expectations are high.