Mountain Vista upsets top-ranked ThunderRidge in 5A baseball
HIGHLANDS RANCH — This was an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.
It ultimately came down to one inning — in effect, one pitch.
Nick Leonard got the best of Wednesday’s duel as he outlasted ThunderRidge’s AJ Jones to help his Mountain Vista team defeat the Grizzlies 3-0.
The win was significant for the Golden Eagles. First, it was on the Grizzlies’ home field. Second, it helped Mountain Vista maintain a perfect Continental League record at 4-0 (11-1 overall) and handed ThunderRidge its first league loss (3-1, 8-3).
And, finally, it meant No. 7 Mountain Vista had knocked off the defending Class 5A champion Grizzlies, currently the No. 1 team in the state.
But perhaps more important for Leonard, it helped him avenge a loss to the Grizzlies in last year’s playoffs.
“They got to me for seven runs (in the playoff game),” Leonard said. “I don’t think I even made it out of the first inning.”
He and Jones were the men in the spotlight on Wednesday. At one point, the two combined to retire 20 straight batters.
Jones gave up four hits and struck out eight.
“That was a phenomenal performance by him,” Leonard said, tipping his cap to his counterpart.
But Leonard was even more dominant. Leonard, who is headed to Washington State this fall on a scholarship, recorded 13 strikeouts, including the final out.
The teams were scoreless through the first five innings. Leonard wasn’t worried.
“I had no doubt in these guys,” he said of believing his teammates would eventually produce at the plate.
Jones’ difficulty came in the top of the sixth. Although he only walked four batters, two of them came to lead off the inning. With one out, he then intentionally walked a batter to load the bases and set up a potential double-play ball. That set the table for Michael Dunnebecke.
“I was thinking, put the ball in play,” Dunnebecke said of his thought process of having the bases loaded in a scoreless game.
He did, hitting the left-centerfield cap for a run-scoring triple for the only runs the Golden Eagles needed.
Mountain Vista coach Ron Quintana was elated to escape the Grizzlies’ field with the victory.
“That was a great high school game,” he said. “It shows that one game in our league is huge.”
Dunnebecke got the key hit, but he passed out the compliments.
“This shows how good of a team we are,” he said.
