Sierra Vista rides Garcia’s arm to win

Nick Christensen

Friday, Aug. 12, 2005 | 10 a.m.

Western Regional

Thursday's results

Merced (Calif.) 10, Albuquerque 0 (8 innings)

Tucson 5, Niwot-Boulder (Colo.) 2

Hawaii 17, Silverado 0 (7 innings)

Sierra Vista 6, St. George (Utah) 0

Today's games

9 a.m. -- Albuquerque vs. Silverado

Noon -- St. George vs. Niwot-Boulder

4 p.m. -- Merced vs. Hawaii

8 p.m. -- Sierra Vista vs. Tucson

Saturday's games

Noon -- St. George/Boulder winner vs. Merced/Hawaii Loser

4 p.m. -- Albuquerque/Silverado winner vs. Sierra Vista/Tucson Loser

8 p.m. -- Merced/Hawaii Winner vs. Sierra Vista/Tucson Winner

Sunday's games

1 p.m. -- Semifinal 1

7 p.m. -- Semifinal 2

Monday's games

1 p.m. -- Championship

7 p.m. -- Championship Game 2 (If Necessary)

After last week's lackadaisical performance in the Nevada state tournament, it was easy to wonder how much energy Sierra Vista would come out with in the American Legion Western regional on Thursday.

Would the Lions show the vigor that won them the NIAA state title at Lied Field three months ago? Or would they play the same sluggish ball that got them bounced from the Legion state tournament at UNLV eight days ago?

Nine scoreless innings from pitchers Justin Garcia and Justin Mettelka did all the talking. The Lions, who got into the eight-team regional by virtue of having the best regular-season record in Nevada Legion play, cruised past St. George 6-0 in the first round of the Western regional.

The Lions (37-13) play KFC of Tucson at 8 p.m. today at Lied Field in Henderson. Justin Baca is expected to start for Sierra Vista.

"We've got a much better attitude out here; we're playing harder, we had a great performance from Garcia, and hit the ball," Lions coach Levi Gill said. "We got some big plays when we needed them and we played solid defense."

Sierra Vista unloaded on the struggling team from Utah's Dixie. The Lions had 13 hits and capitalized on several St. George miscues and two errors.

The Utah champions, meanwhile, were stumped by Sierra Vista's Garcia. He went eight innings, giving up four hits and five walks, and fanning seven of the 31 batters he faced. Mettelka pitched a hitless ninth to seal the victory for Sierra Vista.

"Garcia's a horse. Today, no runs. What else can you say," Gill said. "He walks the same guy (catcher Alex Wolfe) four times and other than that he gets one more guy, just does a great job."

Garcia was humble about his performance, but said his team made an effort this week to get past some overconfidence that hurt them in the state tournament.

"We've been rested; we've had some good practices throughout the week getting some (bonding) back together," he said.

In the earlier game, Silverado looked anything but ready to play in its 17-0 opening-round loss. The Skyhawks were shut out by Hawaii and pitcher Randy Kitagawa, who gave up three hits and two walks while striking out eight in seven innings.

A big seventh inning for Hawaii doomed the Nevada state champions.

Silverado starter Kevin Rath was pulled due to arm pain after just five outs, making things even more difficult for an already overmatched Skyhawks team.

"Obviously it is disappointing, but we ran into a real good pitcher, a guy that's going to be a second-year college kid," Silverado coach Brian Whitaker said. "We couldn't get anything going. When you're facing a guy like him, you have to be able to rise to the occasion and we just didn't do that. I think we have the ability; we just didn't do it today."

Whitaker said Rath has been working his arm on double duty as he works through the first week of football camp at high school.

"You've got to score to win, and we didn't score a run," Whitaker said. "He might just have some soreness from football practice this morning. I'm sure he's going to be fine."