It's not uncommon to see a crooked number go up on the scoreboard in baseball. When it comes in your final at-bat and produces a win (or tie), it's something to remember and something Westwood coach Brian Stephenson won't let his team forget..

"We've scored seven runs in an inning before, but not in the bottom of the seventh," Westwood baseball coach Brian Stephenson said. "That's a first for us. You tell guys to keep battling. That it's not over until the last out. I'm not sure they really believe it until they see it happen. This one was crazy."

That seven-run outburst produced a 9-9 tie for Westwood on Friday afternoon in its Division I game with city rival Mesa High. The game was suspended immediately thereafter due to darkness. It will be resumed on March 9 prior to the teams meeting in a regularly-scheduled game at Mesa High.

Mesa (1-2-1), which played three one-run games in its first three games, appeared on its way to a second straight win and first without sweating out the finish. But the Jackrabbits couldn't throw strikes in the bottom of the seventh. Three Mesa pitchers combined to yield six walks and hit a batter. Throw in an error and a seeing-eye single and Westwood had the ingredients for the unlikely rally.

"We've been talking about finishing ball games," Mesa High coach Mike Masciangelo said. "We had two bad innings in two games at the McClintock tournament (both one-run losss)........ We're young and have to learn how to deal with this."

After trailing 2-1 through three innings, Mesa got the hit of the day (the teams combined for just 11 hits) from starting pitcher Joseph Eto in the fourth. Eto ripped a three-run double to left-center to put the Jackrabbits in front, 4-3. Mesa added on in each inning the rest of the way for a 9-2 advantage heading to the fateful seventh. Each of those rallies was aided by walks issued by Westwood, which coming into Friday's game had been few.

"Our pitching has been great," Stephenson said. "We walked three guys and made two errors in our first four games (all wins). The next game we walked eight. We walked more today and they walked a lot of guys. I was proud of our guys even though we had only one hit in that inning. Down 9-2 you have to get guys on base."

The teams combined to issued 16 walks for the day, 10 by Mesa. Mesa was led offensively by Payson Geohagan's two hits. Geohagan, Brock Hale and Brandon Downs had an RBi each to go with Eto's three.

Westwood (5-1-1), which finished runner-up to Trevor Browne in the D-I final of Cesar Chavez tournament last weekend, had only four hits. David Montano drove in two runs with a single and fielder's choice. Westwood's Hever Bueno scored three times. Teammate Gerardo Arzaga did not have an official at-bat. He walked in all four of his plate appearances.