ALL VIEW--Sierra Vista High School junior Drew Leary pitched a complete-game five-hit shutout for the Mountain Lions in their 4-0 win over Centennial in the NIAA Class 4A state championship baseball game on May 21 at Community College of Southern Nevada's Lied Field.--View Photo by De Etta Louise
ALL VIEW--Sierra Vista High School players celebrate their 4-0 victory over Centennial in the NIAA Class 4A championship game at CCSN's Lied Field on May 21 by soaking coach Nate Selby. The state championship was the first in baseball for the now four-year-old school. --View Photo by De Etta Louise
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Just four years after opening its doors in 2001, Sierra Vista High School fulfilled its baseball destiny by beating Centennial, 4-0, on May 21 to capture the 4A NIAA State Championship at Community College of Southern Nevada's Lied Field before a crowd of 644 on a near 100-degree day.
The Mountain Lions (32-5) blanked the Bulldogs (26-16) as junior Drew Leary tossed his second straight postseason shutout limiting Centennial to just five singles.
Leary was efficient, getting ahead in the count and throwing only 88 pitches in the one hour and 21-minute game. Against Durango in the Sunset Regional, the 6-foot-3-inch right-hander totaled 59 pitches while allowing the Trailblazers two hits.
"He (Leary) was real good. And he was real good in the regional," coach Nate Selby said. "He had a real good run. He had a really good tournament for us."
Sierra Vista took a 1-0 lead in the title tilt in the bottom of the first when designated hitter Pat Grennan doubled in Scott Berke who had led off the inning with a double.
The Lions increased their lead to 4-0 in the fourth when Marc Baca singled in Chuck Howard, who had walked, and Chad Riddle, who doubled. Baca stole second and then scored Sierra Vista's final run on an error on a hard-hit grounder to first base by Kyle Gutchewsky.
Selby, who has been the Lions' coach all four years, compiling a 100-35 record along the way, was thrilled to cap off the perfect season in the flawless manner -- going 7-0 in the postseason and outscoring opponents 40-11 en route to winning the title.
"I feel happy for the kids, especially the seniors," Selby said. "But all of the kids in our program have put in a ton of time and effort and you can't guarantee that it's going to pay off with winning in the final game. I was happy to see the success that we had throughout the year, that was nice for the kids. It's nice to see hard work pay off. We had a good year from start to finish."
In getting to the championship game, Sierra Vista ousted perennial powerhouse Green Valley (27-10), 8-4, on May 20 and the top-seed from the North, Spanish Springs (28-10), 8-5, on May 19 in its opening round game.
The Lions qualified for state by winning the Sunset Regional at Durango and outscoring their opponents 20-2 in the four games. Sierra Vista downed Cheyenne, 5-1 on May 10, beat regional host and Southwest Division rival -- as well as Selby's former employer -- Durango, 3-1, on May 11 and then shut out the Trailblazers, 5-0, on May 12 in the regional semis behind Leary's two-hit masterpiece.
Sierra Vista registered its second straight shutout in the Sunrise Region title game on May 13 as Riddle blanked the Bulldogs, 7-0, as junior Scott Berke had a base-clearing triple and Leary and Chris Carter added home runs.
For Selby, his seniors couldn't have picked a better way to end their high school careers.
"That's what I'm happiest for," he said. "It was certainly nice to see them reach the end of the road like this."
And the Lions' baseball program will definitely be on the prep baseball map for a while after this season. The program is ranked 50th in the nation by Baseball America in its May 15th poll taken before Sierra Vista won state and ninth in the Western Region by USA Today.
"We hope to find ourselves being competitive year in and year out," Selby said. "That's been the goal from the beginning, to find a way to be one of those seven or eight teams in town that year in and year out have a legitimate chance to win it (state championship). We hope to find ourselves in that bunch."
Sierra Vista's road to the school's second state crown -- the boys volleyball team won state in 2004 -- was anything but easy considering the strength of the schedule Selby set up. The Lions played only five teams from Nevada (Shadow Ridge, Mojave, Spring Valley, Clark and Western) that failed to make the playoffs this season.
And Sierra Vista, which went 11-1 in the Southwest, faced Green Valley four times, Durango four times (4-0) and state runner-up Centennial three times (3-0). Two of those wins over the Bulldogs were postseason shutouts -- quite a feat considering Centennial has only been blanked a total of four times in its history.
Toss in a pair of Southwest games each against Bishop Gorman, Spring Valley and Bonanza -- the Lions last loss (1-0) on April 27 -- a pair against 2004 state semifinalist Silverado (2-0) and meetings with Basic, Foothill, Palo Verde, Eldorado, Cimarron-Memorial and a tough, five-game schedule against out-of-state teams and one can see why Sierra Vista was more than ready by mid-May.
"I think playing in our division and playing the preseason schedule we did really paid huge dividends for us," Selby said.
Providing a sense of stability for Sierra Vista throughout the season was a pitching staff that featured Leary (7-0, 1.44 earned run average), Riddle (10-2, 1.31 ERA) and senior Justin Garcia (8-1, 2.73 ERA) in the starting rotation and junior Justin Mettelka (4-1, 0.95, eight saves) coming out of the bullpen to stymie the opposition.
"Our pitching staff has been our bread and butter from the get-go," Selby said. "Early on, we won a lot of games without really swinging the bat that well. It was a team effort but the pitching staff was awesome.
"And the ability to have three legitimate starters and then have Mettelka in the pen really allowed us to have a lot of flexibility and keep people fresh. We were able to bring in the guy we were most comfortable with (to close games)."
Along with the pitching, Selby also praised the work of his team in the weight room and the conditioning which gave them an edge during crunch time. That dedication was never so evident than when late in the last regular season game at Clark one of Sierra Vista's veteran starters, after being taken out of the game, could be seen running around the track all by himself while still wearing his uniform and cleats.
Besides winning the state title on the baseball diamond, the Lions also succeeded by getting Garcia and Riddle to sign letters of intent to attend the new Western Nevada Community College in the fall and saw Carter (.343, seven HR's, 31 RBI's) make a verbal commitment to the University of Arizona according to Selby. And Grennan, who batted .600 in the state playoffs and led the team with a .383 average, and Baca, also are being pursued by colleges in the West.
Also instrumental in the season for Sierra Vista were senior second basemen Brandon Logan and Jeremiah Repp, juniors Jamie Harvey, David Stretz and Christian Parkquette and sophomore Chad Clous.
Assistant coaches Carlos Morrision, Levi Gillard and Andy McCullough lent a hand on the bench to Selby, who gets help from his father, Garry, with Lion Field and the team's Web site.
Despite losing seven seniors, Sierra Vista will return aces Leary and Mettelka as well as starters Gutchewsky (shortstop), Howard (catcher) and Berke (outfield) who was the leading power hitter in Southern Nevada (.341, 12 HR's, 46 RBI's) and will provide a solid bat to build around. The Lions will also benefit from players on its junior varsity team that posted a 22-6-1 record.
So after achieving that big goal that all high school coaches would love to achieve, Selby said he can now concentrate on trying to do it all over again next spring.
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