BASEBALL: Burdett guesses right on curve, collects winning hit for Sierra Vista

Sierra Vista’s Tyler Burdett took a 1-and-2 curveball that just missed ending the game. But when Zach Rickard came back with another breaking ball, Burdett jumped all over it.

The senior lined the ball over the head of Joe Paratore in left field to score two runs and give the Mountain Lions a 7-6 baseball victory over visiting Desert Oasis on Saturday.

“I was paying attention to my charts, looking at what they’d thrown me before, and they’d doubled up a lot on curveballs and I knew it was going to come,” Burdett said.

Burdett’s single capped a three-run seventh inning for Sierra Vista (16-6), which had never led.

“We were just looking to get people on base,” Burdett said. “It got up to my spot, and I just knew what I had to do and then I did it.”

Dylon White’s one-out single started the rally. Chandler Smith followed with a chopper over the third baseman, and Cole Crosby was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

After a strikeout, Nolan Kingham hit a chopper toward the hole on the left side. Third baseman Chase Adams cut the ball off, but Crosby beat the throw to second, allowing a run to score and bringing Burdett to the plate. His decisive single made him 4-for-5 with three RBIs.

“It was a nice hit by Burdett with two outs,” Sierra Vista coach Nate Selby said. “You get a couple guys on and find a way to get a hit. We probably didn’t deserve to win the game. But sometimes you get lucky even though you don’t deserve it.”

In the top of the seventh, Desert Oasis (14-8) had taken a 6-4 lead with an insurance run off Burdett, who threw two innings of relief to get the win. Bryson Stott’s single knocked in Chris Van Kuren, who had doubled with two outs.

“We’ll take (wins) any way we can get them,” Selby said. “We usually seem to find ourselves not very far ahead or behind, so that’s kind of how we’re living.”

Kingham was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, and Smith and Alex Kern each added two hits for the Mountain Lions.

Paratore, Van Kuren, Stott and Rickard each had two hits for Desert Oasis, which got a two-run home run by Alex Tafesh in the first inning.

Coronado 11, Palo Verde 1 — At Coronado, Dylan Myers tossed a five-inning two-hitter with 10 strikeouts, and the Cougars plated seven runs in the bottom of the fifth to rout the Panthers.

Chandler Blanchard was 2-for-3 with a game-ending, two-run home run, three RBIs and a run scored for Coronado. Miles Bice was 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs, and Mike Maiello went 2-for-2 with two doubles, two runs and an RBI for the Cougars.

Alex Blutman was 1-for-2 with a home run for Palo Verde.