Nick Christensen

Mon, Aug 22, 2005 (9:29 a.m.)

Last week, they played nearly perfect baseball to come back and win the American Legion Western Regional.

But when the Sierra Vista Lions showed up in Rapid City, S.D., for the Legion World Series, the stellar defense, timely hitting and well-placed pitching of the regional was lost on the unfamiliar turf of Fitzgerald Stadium.

The Lions struggled in their opener against Brooklawn, N.J., losing 9-1 on Friday. They recaptured the magic of the regional on Saturday, ousting Rapid City 14-2 in seven innings, but couldn't capitalize on the momentum and extra rest as they lost 8-4 to Twin Cities, Wash., on Sunday to fall out of the double-elimination tournament.

"Today, we had trouble locating our pitches, definitely," Lions coach Levi Gill said. "We couldn't really spot up anything other than our fastball and being limited to only be able to throw one pitch for a strike, they kinda hit us very well."

After giving up 16 runs on 42 hits and nine errors in the six games of the Western Regional last week, the Lions allowed 19 runs on 29 hits and nine errors in the three games of the national tournament.

Meanwhile, Sierra Vista combined for five hits in the Lions' two losses.

"It was a real fun experience, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of deal," pitcher Justin Garcia said. "We felt real confident going in, we just didn't swing as well as we thought we were going to."

The fact that the Lions were even in Rapid City was an accomplishment in and of itself. Sierra Vista opened in 2001, but coach Nate Selby, along with Gill and assistants Carlos Morrison and Andy McCulloch, put together a dominant program that spent most of last spring ranked No. 1 in Nevada. The Mountain Lions won the NIAA state title in May.

"We've got to tribute that to Selb (Nate Selby) with such a fast growth of a team," Gill said.

The core of the Lions' spring team had six seniors. Pitcher Chad Riddle moved to Carson City to adapt to Western Nevada Community College early, and third baseman Chris Carter was drafted by the White Sox and is playing for Single-A Bristol.

Garcia said he was planning on leaving for Carson City on Wednesday to begin his college career at WNCC.

But many core players on Sierra Vista's team are returning, including pitcher Drew Leary, who won Saturday's game against Rapid City, pitcher Justin Mettelka, who served as the Lions' closer in 2005, infielders David Stretz and Kyle Gutchewsky and catchers Chad Claus and Chucky Howard. Justin Baca, who was in the Lions' rotation in the summer, will also return for his junior season. And all-state outfielder Scott Berke will also be back.

Gill said the prestige of being a team that qualified for the Legion championships will help to raise the caliber of teams that want to take on the Lions.

"It gives experience for everyone and it raises the expectation level to strive for something big every year," he said. "It'll help our team to get people to play us. We shouldn't have trouble picking up games against people, being able to say we've been in the World Series."

Along with Twin Cities and Brooklawn, teams from Branford, Conn. and Enid, Okla. advanced to today's semifinals. The Series championship games are scheduled for Tuesday.