Nothing that happened Friday nght in the 5A-II all-star baseball game at Surprise Stadium was going to soothe the feelings of Horizon infielder John Rubino.

Rubino, who played for a couple state championship teams in his tenure with the Huskies, didn't get to the final game this season. Horrizon lost in the semifinals to eventual state champ Chaparral.

Rubino played his final high school game coming off the bench and helped his South teammates notch a 4-1 victory over the North in the conference's annual Arizona Baseball Coaches Association sponsored game.

"Not getting to the championship or being able to win it was disappointing," Rubino said. "But this game was fun. I got to play with a lot of my friends. I had a good time. I'm loving life."

Rubino, named the game's most valuable player, was 2-fo-2 with three RBi. He drove in the tying run wth a double in the fifth and gave the South two insurance runs with a two-run single in the sixth. He also made two fine plays at shortstop charging a slow roller to get a putout at first and drifting to the left-field foul line in the seventh to take a hit away from Tolleson's Victor Gardea.

"The first hit a got a hanging curve ball and the second I got a fastball inside," Rubino said. "They were good pitches to hit."

The South got a boost from a quartet of pitchers, who limited the North to five hits. All of those were singles. Leading the way in pitching for the South was Pinnacle's Jake Winters,who tossed three perfect innings and struck out three. Winters was the winning pitcher with Ironwood Ridge's Trey Higginbotham picking up the save. Horizon's Nick Valenza and Yuma's Drew Chavez combined for four innings of one-run ball.

La Joya's Irving Rucobo led the North with two hits and Willow Canyon's Tyler Tingley knocked in the only run for the North with a first-inning, infield single.