Richard Smith
West Valley Preps

In the early innings on a scorching Friday afternoon at the Surprise Sports Complex, Northwest Christian was flashing back two weeks to the cool nearly mile-high altitude in Chino Valley.

Friday's 4A tournament first round game was the third meeting of these region rivals. And until the bottom of the third this pitchers duel resembled the 2-1 Chino Valley win in nine innings on April 21.

But RBI singles in consecutive innings by senior Noah Gray jump started the Crusaders' offense. And junior pitcher Jarin Davis held up his end of the bargain, hurling a complete-game shutout in the 5-0 win for No. 8 seed Northwest Christian (19-9).

"I knew it was going to be a pitchers matchup again. Even though we were seeing a different guy in (Skylar) Brooks, he and (Tyler) Hixon are basically the same guy. They both throw a lot of strikes. They both have good fastballs and curveballs and keep our guys off balance at times," Northwest Christian Coach J.C. McKee said. "Getting that first run was vital."

The Crusaders are back at it Saturday in Surprise. They'll play No. 16 seed Empire, who stunned top seed Holbrook 2-0 in 11 innings.

Play moved at a brisk clip until the bottom of the third inning. Sophomore Dustin Inness singled to right field with one out. He took second base on a dropped third strike.

Gray's single in the hole brought Inness home. The senior is in his first and only year playing for the Crusaders after moving to the Valley from the Pinetop-Lakeside area.

This three-year varsity player at Blue Ridge was an important addition for a young Northwest Christian team returning only two starters.

"This is the best year of my high school career. My teammates pick me up. It's been fun and we hope we can go far in the playoffs," Gray said. "At practice they liked to goof off at the beginning of the year. But they've seen us seniors as role models and what to do in the future."

Senior Tyler Worrell drilled a one-out triple that rolled to the fence in right center. Junior Zac Driscoll's chopper up the middle led to a play at the plate and Worrell slid under the tag for a 2-0 Crusaders lead.

In the fifth, Davis had to find a way out of the Cougars' biggest threat of the game. Two walks and senior Brock Ely's single loaded the bases with one out.



Davis recovered with a strikeout and induced a weak pop up to preserve the goose egg.

"I was trying to throw the ball too hard and I was leaving it up. I simplified my mechanics and  kept the ball down," Davis said. "It gave the whole team really good momentum."

His teammate were able to exhale and put the game away in a three-run bottom of the fifth. Senior Bubba Ponce dropped a single to shallow left center and stole second base.

Gray reprised his role with another RBI single and again took second following a throw home."

"The second one was right down the middle and dead red so I was just looking to hit a line drive up the middle," Gray said. "It was huge. In that nine-inning game we just couldn't time the pitcher. But this game we stayed on him."

He took third on another dropped third strike. Logan Ripple brought him home with a single to right, then stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball.

Driscoll wrapped up the scoring an an RBI single.

And Davis put the cherry on top by sending down the Cougars in order in the final two innings. That saves the rest of the staff for Saturday's quarterfinal.

"For Jarin, it showed a lot of maturity over the year. Usually when we got late in games like that he'd lose it or start to get frustrated, but today he showed a lot of presence and maturity," McKee said.