8-4 Lone Mountain's bid to get to the Jr World Series ends with Hawaii. The powerful Hawaii team defeated our Nevada heroes 12 to 2.

8-1 Lone Mountain bounces back to topple Washington 10-0. Zach Skipper threw a complete game two hit shout out in the victory! The team has a 2-1 record and looks to keep it going vs Oregon on Sunday.

7-30 Our Nevada State Champs drop a game to a strong SoCal team but the boys are in great shape in pool play with a 1-1 record with two games to go. The team has a well deserved day off to prepare to meet the Washington State Champ on Friday at 1 pm.

7-29 Lone Mountain beats Montana 8-0. Tyler LeBaron's strong pitching only allowed three hits in the shut out.

Our Nevada State Champs face Tijeras Creek LL, Rancho Santa Margarita (SoCal State Champ) Wednesday at 4 pm.

Let's go LMLL and keep it RED HOT & ROLLIN!

Pharump Valley Times

7-21-06 

It was eight days ago that Buddy Borden and the Lone Mountain team he coaches had to travel to Honeysuckle Park to tangle with Las Vegas rival Mountain Ridge in a Southern Nevada District 4 Junior Division baseball play-in game.

"That was my mistake, putting us in that position," said Borden, whose team lost 11-9 in that game, forcing Lone Mountain into the losers' bracket for almost a week. Lone Mountain's 13- and 14-year-old boys responded, however, rolling to seven consecutive victories, the tournament championship, and a berth in the Nevada State Junior Division tournament in Reno next week.

Victories six and seven were achieved at Honeysuckle Park Wednesday night. Lone Mountain, behind the stellar pitching of Buddy Borden Jr. and Colton Hinricksen and the hitting of 13-year-old slugger Cody Giordano, steamrolled past Red Rock 12-2 and 10-0 in games stopped by the 10-run mercy rule.

The success of Lone Mountain Little League baseball teams has been incredible this summer; "our Minors and Majors boys made it to state, too," Borden said, happily.

Lone Mountain Junior Division players reside in both the Shadow Ridge and Arbor View high school districts; they also played several games in American Legion Junior Division baseball this summer. Southern Nevada Legion teams can compete at the Gold, Silver, or Junior levels, depending on the age of their players.

Pahrump Valley, in its first season in Legion baseball, is in the Silver Division; the Trojans are in Las Vegas Saturday to play Western at 5 p.m. at Rivera Park, and they close the season at home Monday against Palo Verde, starting at 5 p.m.

Trojan players had a high profile during the District 4 tournament; they comprised the grounds crew, who prepared both Honeysuckle Park fields for competition in the Junior and Senior Division tournaments hosted by the Pahrump Little League.

The PLL arranged for four umpires -- Tim Cazier, John Bradley, Ed Martinez and Brent Ahlsted -- to work the twin bill Wednesday night, as well as operating a well-stocked concessions stand during every game of the tournament.

In the first game, Lone Mountain scored in all five innings, while Borden, a curve-ball throwing righthander, limited Red Rock to two hits. Red Rock didn't get a hit until the fifth inning, when the red-and-while clad team used a single, double and the only Lone Mountain error to score its runs.

Lone Mountain's white-uniformed team got all the runs it really needed in the first two innings.

In the first inning, Jordan Blaylock singled and Giordano doubled to give the winners a 1-0 lead.

In the second inning, Hinricksen slugged a 3-2 pitch over the left-center field fence to boost Lone Mountain's lead to 2-0. But that rally didn't cease until four more runs had crossed the plate. Cody Prlina, Blaylock and Giordano had consecutive hits to help boost Lone Mountain's lead to 6-0.

Lone Mountain added single runs in the third and fourth innings, with Kyle Ford and Giordano collecting the RBIs. Needing four runs in the fifth to have the mercy-rule go into effect, Prlina drove in two runs and Giordano added one to balloon Lone Mountain's lead to 12-2.

Giordano finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs; Prlina was 2-for-4; Blaylock 2-for-3 and Hinricksen 2-for-2 with a homer and double.

In the second game, Hinricksen, who was probably the hardest-throwing pitcher in the tournament, was matched against Red Rock ace David Pettis, who was effective when he kept his pitches down in the strike zone. Alas, not all did, and Lone Mountain's batters took advantage of Pettis's mistakes.

Over the course of the six-inning game, Lone Mountain slugged 10 hits, including seven in its last two at-bats, when the winners struck for six runs. While Lone Mountain led 4-0 after four innings, it had stranded 10 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the first and second innings.

Lone Mountain got the clutch hits in the fifth inning, with Blaylock, Giordano and Blake Boley combining for four RBI as the Red Rock deficit moved to 9-0. The game reached mercy-rule consideration in the sixth when backup first baseman Dustin Matsui scored for Lone Mountain.

Giordano was 4-for-5 with three RBI, giving him twin bill totals of 7-for-9 and seven runs batted in. Not too shabby for the youngster, who won't be 14 until Sept. 14.

Lone Mountain averaged 11.5 runs per game, while allowing 3.5 rpg in going 7-1 in the tournament. Red Rock won its first three games, including a key 8-7 decision against Mountain Ridge in the winners' bracket finals. Lone Mountain then eliminated Mountain Ridge with an 11-0 win Tuesday.

Pahrump's Junior Division All-Stars were 0-2 in the tournament, losing 2-1 to Mountain Ridge and 13-12 to Peccole.

The 12-and-under girls fastpitch softball team beat Legacy, twice, on its way to winning the state championship.

"It was kind of payback," Lone Mountain manager Ron Atiyeh said. "We worked the entire season to build up to the state tournament. That was our goal. We knew (Legacy) would be our competition at state and we worked hard all season to be there and beat them at state. The last two years we kind of called it the Legacy jinx."

Lone Mountain, which plays on the northwest side of town, captured the District 4 crown to advance to the Little League State Championship at Desert Bloom Park in Henderson.

Lone Mountain beat Summerlin Little League twice to win the district title and then won three of its four games at the state tournament.

Lone Mountain upended Elko, 16-6, in the opener of the double-elimination event and then rolled past Legacy, 11-3.

Legacy bounced back to beat Lone Mountain, 10-9, to force another title tilt, but Lone Mountain left no doubt in a 19-3 romp to glory.

Atiyeh said a couple of keys to success were his team's maturity and work ethic.

"One (difference) was the maturity of the girls. They really developed a lot over the past year. And also their dedication to practice," he said. "We did go in there totally expecting to win the tournament. The nucleus of the team has been together for three years."

With the euphoria of finally getting past Legacy still fresh, Lone Mountain lost its opener of the Little League Division 4 Championship in Tucson, Ariz., 20-1, to the host San Xavier All-Stars.

"With the travel and excitement, our girls just weren't ready to play," Atiyeh said.

Lone Mountain came back to beat Utah, 12-2, in the double-elimination tournament to set up a rematch with the mighty Arizona squad.

Lone Mountain avenged its lopsided loss with a gutty 5-3 win over Arizona in the first of two championship games. It was the lone loss suffered by Arizona, which beat every other team it faced in the playoffs by the 10-run rule.

"We were the only team to beat Arizona," Atiyeh said. "I had no doubt in my mind we were going to win. I knew our girls and I knew that first game was just a fluke. It wasn't our girls. I knew they were going to come out and play their game."

With the game tied at 3 in the fifth inning of the six-inning affair, Hayley Atiyeh drilled an RBI double to give Lone Mountain a lead it wouldn't relinquish. Jordyn McDonald scored on the play after reaching base with a walk. Atiyeh stole third base and scored an insurance run on a wild pitch.

Arizona threatened in the final frame, loading the bases with two outs, but McDonald got its leading hitter to pop out to second to end the game.

Lone Mountain hit the ball hard in the second title tilt, but right at Arizona defenders en route to a 5-1 loss.

"In the second game we faced their best pitcher. I knew we had to play our best game and we outplayed them, but the hits just weren't dropping. All the balls were right at defenders and that was the difference," he said. "They really played above our expectations. We knew, going into divisionals, we were going to be meeting some very tough competition. Arizona probably had the best pitcher we saw all year."

While defense was the strength of the Lone Mountain squad, its pitching and hitting were also solid. Jessica Barnoske went 3-2 on the mound in the playoffs and beat Legacy twice in the state tournament. McDonald went 2-1, including the upset of Arizona, and Jenna Van Eykeren went 2-0 on the hill and made some outstanding plays in center field, including throwing out a girl at first base.

Five girls hit .500 or better in the playoffs for Lone Mountain. Tatum Kennedy, a catcher, hit .567 to lead the team, Atiyeh hit .512, third baseman Rayna Bradshaw hit .511 and Barnoske and McDonald each hit .500.

The state champs also featured Chelsea Williams, Lauren Centrella, Lauren Lynds, Nikki Manire, Rachelle Jones and Heather Steinbach.

Lone Mountain was coached by Frank Kennedy, Bernie Williams and Randy McDonald.