Sierra Vista breaks through late

Shadow Ridge’s baseball team kept opening the door for Sierra Vista on Monday.

The Mountain Lions finally barged through.

The Mustangs made three errors in the sixth inning, and Sierra Vista turned them into four runs en route to a 4-2 home victory.

“They made a few mistakes, we made a few mistakes, but we made it hurt at the end,” Sierra Vista pitcher Nolan Kingham said.

No. 9 Sierra Vista (17-9, 4-3 Northeast League) had been unable to take advantage of four Shadow Ridge errors through five innings. But Matthew Almaguer reached on an error to start the sixth, and Alex Kern followed with a double to center to put runners at second and third.

Dylan White brought home the first run with a sacrifice fly, and Kavan Alferaz lined a single to center to tie the game.

The Mustangs (17-10, 4-3) then had a shot to get out of the inning when Ryan Carrol hit a sharp liner to Chris Opolka at third. Opolka made the catch and had a chance to double Alferaz off first, but his throw was wild, allowing Alferaz to move into scoring position for the top of the order.

Shadow Ridge intentionally walked Cole Crosby, and starter Isaiah Blaylock hit Caeden Marin to load the bases for Kingham who was 3-for-3 at the time with a pair of doubles.

Opolka replaced Blaylock on the mound and got Kingham to hit a potentially inning-ending grounder to second. Tyler Burton made a nice play to his right to stop the ball, but hurried his throw to first and it was off target, allowing two more runs to score to give the Mountain Lions the lead.

“We’d kind of been messing around all day with opportunities to score and hadn’t found a way to do it, so it was nice to finally get something across the plate,” Sierra Vista coach Nathan Selby said.

Kingham went the distance, allowing no earned runs on three hits, to get the win. He struck out four and walked three.

“It was nice to see Kingham pitch well,” Selby said. “That was probably about as good as he’s pitched all year. We went into this thing thinking we might have some pitching. It really hasn’t manifested itself being as good as we wished. So maybe we’re taking a step in the right direction.”

Selby said the win was key for his team, which had dropped two straight and three of its last four.

“We really haven’t played well all year, so we’re hopeful that anything might kick us into gear and get us going.” Selby said.

Alferaz was 2-for-3 for Sierra Vista, which had six hits.

Burton went 2-for-2 with and drove in both runs for seventh-ranked Shadow Ridge.

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters.