Red Mountain played its final home softball game of the regular season on Friday afternoon and afterward honored its seniors (five) all of whom are starters.

While Haley Culley, Payton Kornfeind, Siera Phillips, Marisa Mayes and Bri Gonzales have been an integral part of the success of the last three seasons (two state title and a state runner-up), it  was the efforts of two sophomores that highlighted a 5-0 victory over visiting Mesa Mountain View.

The most unheralded of the two sophs Friday, in fact not even on the varsity radar last year, was first baseman Ashley Hill. Hill collected three hits, scored twice and drove in two runs to pace a 10-hit attack. Even when Red Mountain (26-3 overal, 14-1 power-point games) has a hole or an opening the following year it manages to get filled by the likes of players like Hill.

"We knew last year Ashley could hit," Red Mountain coach Rich Hamilton said. "We didn't have a spot where she could fit in last year, so we put her on the junior varsity. She's been on fire. She'll be one of our better ones the next couple years."

Hill got Red Mountain started on the way to its ninth consecutive win with a leadoff single in the second off Mountain View's Val Kaff. Hill scored on a one-out single by Marian Ruf a couple batters later. That's all fellow soph Bre Macha needed as she tossed a two-hit shutout and continued an impressive encore season from her debut with the Mountain Lions a year ago.

Macha allowed only three base runners and only one reached second. That happened with two outs in the seventh on a double by the Toros Kelli Wickerman. Macha struck out seven and did not walk a batter. She improved to 11-2 for the season and lowered her earned-run average to 1.24.

Hill made sure Red Mountain had more runs to work with by delivering a two-out RBI single in the third. Hill's third hit drove in Phillips in the fifth. That touched off a three-run rally that doused any hope of a Mountain View comeback.

Mountain View (17-10, 7-6 ppg), which won the Desert Mountain Invitational three weeks ago by winning six of seven games and topping Paradise Valley in the final, has struggled since. Mountain View is 4-4 over its last eight games. Along with Friday's shutout they were blanked, 1-0, on Thursday by Mesa High.

The Toros need at least four wins and may have to win out to secure a berth in the state tournament that begins in two weeks. While its pitching remains strong, Mountain View has struggled to score most of the season. They are averaging just 4.5 runs per game about half of the what the top contenders are averaging per game.