For five innings Saturday at Greg Brock Field, Mountain View’s Sam Holt and Wellington’s Tanner Gray matched each other frame for frame.
Finally, after the Mountain Lions pulled off an improbable double play to get out of the top of the sixth inning, Mountain View got three straight hits to start the bottom of the inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Holt then retired the Eagles in order in the top of the seventh to secure a 2-1 win, the third in a row and sixth in the past seven games for the Mountain Lions.
The Mountain View ace ended up allowing a run on four hits while walking two and striking out seven. He picked up his fourth win of the season while lowering an ERA that was 2.33 entering Saturday’s game.
The Mountain Lions improved to 7-6 overall and 5-4 in the Longs Peak League. Following a 1-5 start to the season, Mountain View seems to be gaining momentum.
“I just like the way that we’re playing,” Mountain View head coach Brian Smela said. “I just want to keep doing that as long as we can, just keep stretching that out, not thinking about too much but just keep playing good, hard baseball.”
Mountain View took a 1-0 lead in the second inning after Noah Hoffman led off with a double and was able to score on a Wellington error. Mountain View held onto that lead until the top of the fourth.
After Holt struck out the first batter of the inning, the Eagles got back-to-back singles to put two runners on. The next hitter for Wellington hit a bloop single to shallow right field and Mountain View was able to force the runner going from first to second for the second out of the inning.
Holt struck out the last batter of the frame, but before he did, a passed ball allowed the Eagles to score a run and tie the game at 1-1.
“I think I just tried to do too much,” Holt said. “I’ve got to trust my team, but you’ve always got to battle. When you give up a run, you’ve just got to minimize, and I thought I did that well today.”
The Eagles had two on with one out in the top of the sixth when Gray hit a grounder to first base. Mountain View first baseman August Engel went home with the ball, and eventually the Mountain Lions were able to get outs at home plate and third base for the unorthodox, inning-ending double play.
Mountain View fed off that energy in the bottom of the inning. Mason Belk led off with a triple and scored on a single by Jevin Dorcey to give the Mountain Lions a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish.
It was a bit of redemption for Belk, who struck out the first two times he faced Gray.
“He was doing really good the first couple of innings,” Belk said. “He was fooling a lot of us with a curveball. Into that at-bat, I was just thinking first-pitch fastball, and I just reacted and got a triple on it and really helped our team out. He definitely got me the first two times pretty good. I just wanted to flush it off, not think about it and show up for my team at bat.”
The Mountain Lions finished the game with only six hits, but the ones they got were timely.
With Holt on the mound, for the second week in a row, the Mountain View offense only needed to score two runs. He held Loveland to a single run last Saturday in an 8-1 victory.
The junior has been even better than Smela expected him to be this season.
“He’s a true ace right now,” Smela said. “He’s pitching like an ace. He thinks like an ace. We’ve had some good ones out here, and he’s right there with any of those guys.”
Holt described his season so far as ‘special’ and hopes to continue to contribute as Mountain View chases its first postseason appearance since 2022.
The Mountain Lions will look to extend their winning streak Monday when they play the second half of the home-and-home series with the Eagles in Wellington.
“Last year we had a special group, and I think we’re still trying to build on that,” Holt said. “We have a pretty good shot. I’m just trying to not think about it too much in the head, just go one game at a time.”
