Little League peak too steep for Mountain Ridge to reach

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Seventeen years ago, when you looked west toward Hualapai Way in Las Vegas, you saw only a dozen or so homes. There was nothing there, nothing to suggest that building a park to house Little League fields made sense.

But it did, and the dreams of a few have now produced a league that in a given season can stand among the country’s best.

The smiles of joy and tears of happiness across the faces of young boys from two years ago were instead those of overwhelming sadness and heartache Saturday night, when Mountain Ridge fell to Park View Little League of Chula Vista, California, 1-0 in a West Regional final before an estimated crowd of 12,000 at Houghton Stadium and an ESPN nationally televised audience.

It was in 2014 when a team from Mountain Ridge became the first in state history to make the Little League World Series, but this latest group of All-Stars fell one game short of standing atop that famous hill and staring down at the baseball temple that is Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Instead, the team from Southern California and its incredibly deep pitching staff will open play as the West representative on Friday.

“This one hurts,” Mountain Ridge manager Roland Watkins said. “A one-run game is tough to take. … You know, we have a community of dedicated baseball people in the northwest part of Las Vegas who are committed to getting these kids good coaching and taking them to year-round lessons. Mountain Ridge as a league has benefited from that. This shows a lot about what kind of instruction they’re getting.”

It was commissioner Larry Brown who was intent years ago on erecting facilities in Las Vegas specific to a certain sport. And at the corner of Durango Drive and Elkhorn Road, on a site hugging one side of U.S. Highway 95, Brown saw the need for youth baseball fields.

Mountain Ridge was born, having been formed when Lone Mountain Little League outgrew its numbers and split at boundaries of Cheyenne Avenue and Rancho Road.

Two years ago, Watkins was a member of the coaching staff managed by Ashton Cave, whose team advanced to the U.S. championship of the World Series, lost to a side from Chicago and was later awarded the title when it was discovered that Jackie Robinson West had used players outside its designated geographic area.

Cave was at work Saturday in Las Vegas, his fire house called out twice before the game and him driving in the truck as he spoke about then and now moments before the first pitch.

“It seems like yesterday that we made it,” Cave said. “It’s true that a lot of things have to go well for a team to reach San Bernardino and then obviously Williamsport. You have to have a very good team, and there is always some luck along the way.

“Mountain Ridge has been able to build a system that parents and coaches and players are buying into, and that’s doing things the right way and playing the game the right way. One player or coach or parent isn’t getting an entire team to Williamsport. It has to be a collective effort.”

Here’s the thing: For any Nevada team to advance past a regional, it has to be really talented and compete in a year when perennial power Southern California and its wealth of talent is down.

Mountain Ridge was really good in 2014, and Southern California didn’t even make the final.

Mountain Ridge was good this year — not on the level of that historic team, certainly not at the plate — but Southern California wasn’t down. At least not on the mound.

If it’s true that Park View’s No. 2 pitcher is as good as ace Victor Lizarraga — his coaches insist as much — then California has a good chance of winning its eighth World Series title and what would be the second for the Little League from south San Diego, which won it all in 2009.

Lizarraga had a no-hitter through five innings when Hunter Kublick led off the sixth with a single for Mountain Ridge. Then, pinch runner Luke Miles reached second on a passed ball, but was stranded when Lizarraga struck out Mountain Ridge standout Garrett Cutting to end the game.

It was Lizarraga’s 13th strikeout.

Park View scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the fourth, aided by two of Mountain Ridge’s four errors. If you’re going to stand any chance against that type of pitching at this level, you must be clean defensively.

The team from Las Vegas wasn’t.

“I wanted so badly to take the kids (to Williamsport),” Watkins said. “Especially this year, with my son (Ryan) on the team. When I went as an assistant (in 2014), he was with me to watch, but he really wanted to be there with his teammates this time. I wanted the kids to know that feeling. It’s a very special place, nostalgic. It’s hard to describe unless you have been there. I was really hoping our boys would have that chance.”

It figures others might earn one in the future.

“The future is bright,” Watkins said. “It’s always bright at Mountain Ridge.”

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.