Mountain Pointe and Brophy engaged in a slugfest of sorts Friday afternoon with the teams combining for a modest 12 hits, but nine of them extra-base knocks. The fact that Brophy had more of those would lend credence that the Broncos prevailed.

Not so. Mountain Pointe poked two homers and a double with runners on -- most times via walks -- and that paved the way for an 8-2 win for the defending big-school champs over Brophy at Mountain Pointe.

"We've kind of ridden the emotion of our pitching," Brophy coach Tom Succow said. "Mike Westra has been our best pitcher, our No. 1. But he didn't have it today. They had four runs off four walks. Those hurt."

Brophy's best moment came with the game's first pitch -- a long home run by Broncos standout Dave Graybill. Graybill's blast came off Mountain Pointe starter Zach Cordova. The 1-0 lead didn't last. Cordova's pitching, along with two-out hitting by his Pride teammates, made sure Brophy wouldn't recapture the lead.

Westra sporting a 0.39 earned run average entering the game, surrendered a double and back-to-back, two-out walks in the bottom of the first. A ringing two-strike double to right by Ernie De La Trinidad put Mountain Poiinte ahead to stay. An error allowed Mountain Pointe to take a 3-1 lead to the second.

From there Cordova was in control. He allowed a solo homer to Nick Jewett in the fourth and four other hits the rest of the way. He fanned one and walked one. He had Broncos' hitters either hitting the ball hard right at a defender or getting out in front too much for routine outs.

"Zach's a competitor," Mountain Pointe coach Brandon Buck said. "We know when he's on the mound we'll be in the game. Brophy has one of the better lineups in the state.  Their No. 8 hitter has like six home runs. Zach was able to focus back up after the (first-pitch) home run."

Mountain Pointe's 1 through 3 hitters did most of the damage on the day offensively. Combined Sam Kingery, Scott Kingery and Joey Curletta were 4-for-9 with six runs scored, two homers and five RBI. Scott Kingery hit a two-run homer in the third adn Curletta socked a three-run bomb with two outs in the fourth that finished the day for Westra.

Graybill and Jewett each had two hits for Brophy (11-5 overall and 5-3 in power-point games). Brophy was anxious to get back to action after coming up a game short in the Horizon tournament due to a rain day. The Broncos only other game this week was against Ironwood, a 19-2 win on Tuesday.

On the flip side, Mountain Pointe (10-7-1, 5-3 ppg) played its fourth game of the week Friday after playing five the week before in Horizon's tournament. The four games this week were power-point games. The Pride won 2 and lost 2. The two losses were to rival Desert Vista on Monday and Thursday. 

"I feel a lot better winning this one," Buck said. "Four games this week and five last week. The boys are a little tired."

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