Mountain Ridge’s baseball team is travelling home with a big prize, the championship trophy of the National Classic High School Baseball Tournament.

On Thursday, the program completed its memorable tournament run with a 7-1 championship win over El Toro, Calif. at Cal State Fullerton. The win marks the first time that an Arizona high school baseball team won the prestigious tournament.

Mountain Ridge also is bringing home the Outstanding Pitcher, Hitter and MVP tournament awards. It’s the first time in the history of the 26-year tournament that one team received all three individual post-tournament awards.

But it took a team effort for Mountain Ridge to claim the title, coach Lance Billingsley said.

“We came out to play in this tournament to help our brand and our program grow,” Billingsley said during a phone interview after the win. “Our kids came together, and this tournament helped us become a family.”

Tristan Thomas struggled at the plate in the first two tournament games, but the senior third baseman delivered Thursday with three RBI’s and four hits.

The Outstanding Pitcher of the Tournament, junior Tommy Lowe, got the start on the mound but only threw 50 pitches before giving way to one of the state’s elite young arms, Matthew Liberatore. The sophomore missed about three weeks with a neck injury but returned recently.

Liberatore and Lowe limited El Toro to just one run. Ole Miss, Arizona State and Arizona have already inquired about Liberatore.

Senior catcher/infielder/pitcher Matthew Dyer picked up MVP honors, and junior outfielder Trent Turner was named Outstanding Hitter.