Over the years Arizona high school baseball powers Hamilton and Horizon have played many more quality games than not when facing off against one another. Their matchup Wednesday afternoon was not one of those.

Hamilton put up seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings to break a 2-2 tie and tight-roped the final two frames in posting a 9-6 victory at Hamilton High. Hamilton (12-2) is second in the current 6A power rankings while Horizon (11-4) is fourth in the 5A power rankings. Both schools have won seven state championships in their history - Hamilton over two decades and Horizon over a 40-year span.

The game featured a lot of pitches with walks and strikeouts ruling the day. Hamilton's Brock Selvidge and Josh Tiedemann combined to strikeout 14 and walk 10. Horizon starter Grant Richardson walked six and fanned four in two innings of work. Relievers Sam Lachot and Collin Senior settled in to walk only two and fan two in the final four innings. There were nine hits total in the game.

"It was an ugly game, no doubt," Hamilton coach Mike Woods said. ".............A win is a win."

Woods pointed to a positive from his side. A three-run rally with two outs in the fifth inning seemed to be meaningless at the time. It bumped Hamilton's lead from 6-2 to 9-2. Credit the rally to the bottom and top of Hamilton's order - 8-9-1-2. Luke Thiele hustled to first on grounder to third with two out. The throw was low and not picked. Thiele stole second and ninth-place hitter -  just subbed into the game Alex Hernandez - delivered an RBI single. Another stolen base by pinch runner DJ Barrett, and walk to leadoff hitter Gavin Turley were both driven home by Ryan Kucherak's double to right. 

Horizon, under first-year coach and school alum Beau Polvorosa, didn't give in. After Tiedemann struck out the side in his first inning of work in the fifth, Horizon cut the lead to 9-4 in the sixth using a double by sub Tyler Krater and walk from sub Erik Baratta. They scored separately via a wild pitch and balk.

It got a bit more tense for Hamilton in the seventh. Dominic Chacon homered to start the inning. After a strikeout Tiedemann issued a walk and a second double to Krater. Barrata's sacrifice fly plated another run making it 9-6 with two outs. A ground ball to third looked to be a routine end to the game, but the throw was off target putting two on and bringing the tying run to the plate. Tiedemann got a fly out to center from Jace Behnke to finish it.

Despite control issues, Selvidge managed to go four innings and record the win. On Wednesday Selvidge gave up one hit (first-inning single), two runs (one earned), walked seven and struck out nine. Woods said Selvidge has been up and down with his command. His prior outing against Pinnacle was a no-decision. He fanned 12 and walked noone. Lachot (3-2) took the loss allowing four runs on two hits and a walk in two innings of work.

Both teams resume play on Friday. Hamilton visits region-rival Perry and Horizon travels to region-rival Cactus Shadows.