Richard Smith West Valley Preps Spring break baseball tournaments are an ideal opportunity for teams to try players in new roles, different lineup combinations, bullpen arms and start younger guys on the bench. That goes double for teams with first-year head coaches. Both Ironwood and Valley Vista fall into that category, and they faced off Wednesday afternoon in a game that was part of the sprawling Coach Bob Invitational. While other goals are primary in these games that don't count, a win is still nice. The home Monsoon grabbed a 6-4 victory, thanks to a sixth inning RBI by sophomore Logan Olson, followed an intentional walk to junior Tyler Cotto and a two-run double to left field by senior Damian Nunez. "When they put on Tyler at first it was a relief. I felt like they made a mistake and I have to capitalize on that and bring in runs," Nunez said. "Coach pulled me off to the side and said to relax and stay short and hit the ball ahrd." Those hits broke a 3-3 tie, Ironwood (4-11) was a hit away from tying it at six in their final at bat. Junior Alex Cordero drove in a run and the Eagles then loaded the bases with one out. Junior reliever Austin Moore escaped the jam by inducing a flyout and groundout. "This whole week they have been really good. We have made a tremendous leap forward, in pitching, defense and hitting," Ironwood assistant coach Vince Nossek said. Moore was a bright spot in relief for the Monsoon, entering with two men on and no outs in the fourth inning. After walking the first batter he faced to load the bases, he picked up a strikeout and a double play ball. He did not allow a run until the top of the seventh.

"He came in early and pitched with a lot of confidence. That's the one think I ask my players, win or lose, play hard and play with confidence," Valley Vista coach Enrique Cotto said. "He did a great job today."

Valley Vista (7-6) is a young team and got a bit of a late start with Cotto not officially hired until November. He was a Valley Vista assistant coach for seven years before serving in that capacity at Buckeye Verrado the last two seasons. Only three current seniors were familiar to Cotto from his last stint in Surprise. This week has helped the returning coach "A lot of them are inexperienced in a tense situation," Cotto said. "This tournament has helped give them opportunities and we've got five more games. We continued to grow today. We haven't been able to handle those situations earlier this year. I think we took a big step." Ironwood's situation is more like a complete overhaul, as the Eagles have not posted a winning season in more than a decade. Nossek is leading the team through the tournament while first year head coach Ira Jeffers is on leave expecting the birth of his child. So Jeffers and Nossek are more focused on reversing what had become a negative atmosphere after years of losing. "Immediately, we noticed we have a really special group. They have good hearts and are going to be tremendous men when they get a little older. One thing we wanted to fix was the culture. We had kids  yelling at each other in the dugout and sometimes it got a little ugly," Nossek said. "They're doing a great job of getting behind each other and battling. We want to establish a brotherhood and go to battle."