What was it going to be? Defending 5A-I baseball champ Desert Ridge continuing a long road back to try and defend its title? Or No. 14 Dobson continuing to live out that double-digit seed, state title dream?

On this Saturday afternoon the defending champs won out. Desert Ridge scored in every inning and tallied nine of its 12 runs with two outs to oust Dobson from the 5A-I state  tournament with a 12-2, five-inning win at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

"Our inexperience showed last time," Desert Ridge coach Pat Herrera said of his team's beginning at state a week ago Saturday resulting in a 9-7 loss to Dobson. "We were more relaxed today. We caught the ball today, played better dfensively. And Scott (Hoffman) pitched better."

Desert Ridge (25-8) has now won three consecutive elimination games and will get a chance at a fourth on Tuesday against either Mountain Pointe or Gilbert at 4 p.m. at Camelback Ranch Glendale Stadium. Dobson, which played a nearlly flawless game Thursday in beating Trevor Browne, did not have a good game on Saturday. Dobson pitchers issued nine walks, allowed nine hits and the defense committed four errors. That's evidence of how Desert Ridge managed to score at least a run in every inning.

"When (Hoffman) is on the mound you know you are going to be in for a fight," Dobson coach Dave Tykoski said. "We weren't able to stop them. They just kept attacking us."

Hoffman gave up six hits, walked four and struck out three. He went all five innings, got a double-play ground ball in the fifth and helped himself in the first inning picking off Dobson leaadoff hitter Josh Stone.

Offensively, every Desert Ridge starter reached base at least once. Leadoff hitter Riley Unroe homered in the bottom of the first to put the Jaguars up 1-0 and added three walks in his other plate appearances. Justin Donovan knocked in three runs and No. 9 hitter Justin Adams drove in two.

The inning that hurt Dobson (14-19) the most was the second. The Mustangs tied the game at 1 in the top of the second on D.J. Carr's RBI single. Desert Ridge answered with a two-out, noone-on-three-run rally to go in front for good. The cap to the inning was Donovan's two-run single off Dobson starter Chris Pennell.

Still within striking distance at 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Desert Ridge tacked on six runs to blow the game open.  Five of the runs scored with two outs. The Jaguars got RBI hits from Alonzo Palacios, Taylor Flores and Adams's two-RBI hit.  Four of the six runs in the inning were charged to reliever Keegan Lohide, who ptiched three strong innings in last week's 9-7 victory and earned the win. In this game, Lohide faced five hitters and gave up three hits and two walks.