Oro Valley Pusch Ridge defeated St. David 19-4 Wednesday night in a five-inning game featuring two Southern Arizona Division IV powers. As the score might indicate, most of the runs were unearned.

First-year coach Kreston Elchert replaced longtime St. David skipper Ira Lewis and he inherited a team that finished 20-7 last year including a No. 6 ranking and a quarterfinal finish.

Gone from that squad are standouts Kayla Bradford and Rylie Vargas. Vargas and Bradford helped lead the school to a state championship in volleyball and a runner-up finish in basketball before graduating last spring. The duo also helped St. David defeat D-II softball power Sunnyside last season.

Bradford is now a standout outfielder for Mesa Community College.

With a total of five seniors gone, with over eighty percent of their offense and all of their pitching leaving with them, Elchert has had to rebuild with younger players and they have responded with a respectable 8-5 record and a top-15 placement in the initial MaxPreps/AIA rankings released earlier in the day.

"We are young and not very experienced but we have a lot of potential," Elchert explained. 'It's just a matter of unlocking that potential."

Likewise, Pusch Ridge has had to go through a major change.

Dana Wahl is in her first year at Pusch Ridge and she took over a program three years removed from a state championship. At 16-2, the Lions are ranked in the top five and, unlike St. David, Pusch Ridge is loaded with seniors including standout shortstop and Grand Canyon commit Maddie Dowdle.

If you play the game long enough you know there will be games where errors multiply, singles become triples and throws become more difficult than they have to be and such was the case when these two teams met up.

Pusch Ridge scored four runs in the bottom of the second with only two earned but St. David responded with four unearned runs of their own in the third to tie the game up 4-4.

Pusch Ridge freshman Jessica Giacoma hit a home run to leadoff the bottom of the third but then the floodgates opened.  Kimbree Dillman induced a groundout but the next two groundballs were misplayed and Pusch Ridge went on to score 11 more runs in the inning.

Giacoma started the game for Pusch Ridge and she collected seven strikeouts in three innings of work. Ashley Perdue pitched the final two innings to close out the game. Pusch Ridge would add three more runs in the fourth for the final 19-4 margin.

"This is my first year but I'm also the volleyball coach so I've been around these girls," Wahl said. "It's been a blast working with them. They are tenacious and they are hitting like crazy from top to bottom. Our hits can come from anyone in our lineup."

Besides her home run, Giacoma connected on a double. Senior Shelby Harris went 2-3 with a triple, sophomore Karli Frithsen hit a double and senior Kailey Rohne went 3-4.

St. David was limited to three hits but the Tiger defense turned a triple play in the first inning to keep them in the game early.

St. David will visit Tombstone (7-7) on Friday while Pusch Ridge will travel to Tucson Desert Christian (8-1) next Wednesday.