DON McDERMOTT / PVT Colton Hinricksen approaches home plate -- and happy teammates -- after he slugged a home run in the second inning of Lone Mountain's 12-2 rout of Red Rock, in the first game of the Southern Nevada District 4 Junior Division baseball playoffs Wednesday night at Honeysuckle Park. Lone Mountain went 7-1 in the tournament, including a title-clinching 10-0 win in the second game Wednesday. DON McDERMOTT / PVT Cody Giordano, a 13-year-old slugger for the Lone Mountain District 4 Junior Division Little League baseball championship team, accepts one of the individual trophies presented to the finalists. Giordano was 7-for-9 in two games against Red Rock Wednesday. Advertisement

It was eight days ago that Buddy Borden and the Lone Mountain team he coaches had to travel to Honeysuckle Park to tangle with Las Vegas rival Mountain Ridge in a Southern Nevada District 4 Junior Division baseball play-in game.

"That was my mistake, putting us in that position," said Borden, whose team lost 11-9 in that game, forcing Lone Mountain into the losers' bracket for almost a week. Lone Mountain's 13- and 14-year-old boys responded, however, rolling to seven consecutive victories, the tournament championship, and a berth in the Nevada State Junior Division tournament in Reno next week.

Victories six and seven were achieved at Honeysuckle Park Wednesday night. Lone Mountain, behind the stellar pitching of Buddy Borden Jr. and Colton Hinricksen and the hitting of 13-year-old slugger Cody Giordano, steamrolled past Red Rock 12-2 and 10-0 in games stopped by the 10-run mercy rule.

The success of Lone Mountain Little League baseball teams has been incredible this summer; "our Minors and Majors boys made it to state, too," Borden said, happily.

Lone Mountain Junior Division players reside in both the Shadow Ridge and Arbor View high school districts; they also played several games in American Legion Junior Division baseball this summer. Southern Nevada Legion teams can compete at the Gold, Silver, or Junior levels, depending on the age of their players.

Pahrump Valley, in its first season in Legion baseball, is in the Silver Division; the Trojans are in Las Vegas Saturday to play Western at 5 p.m. at Rivera Park, and they close the season at home Monday against Palo Verde, starting at 5 p.m.

Trojan players had a high profile during the District 4 tournament; they comprised the grounds crew, who prepared both Honeysuckle Park fields for competition in the Junior and Senior Division tournaments hosted by the Pahrump Little League.

The PLL arranged for four umpires -- Tim Cazier, John Bradley, Ed Martinez and Brent Ahlsted -- to work the twin bill Wednesday night, as well as operating a well-stocked concessions stand during every game of the tournament.

In the first game, Lone Mountain scored in all five innings, while Borden, a curve-ball throwing righthander, limited Red Rock to two hits. Red Rock didn't get a hit until the fifth inning, when the red-and-while clad team used a single, double and the only Lone Mountain error to score its runs.

Lone Mountain's white-uniformed team got all the runs it really needed in the first two innings.

In the first inning, Jordan Blaylock singled and Giordano doubled to give the winners a 1-0 lead.

In the second inning, Hinricksen slugged a 3-2 pitch over the left-center field fence to boost Lone Mountain's lead to 2-0. But that rally didn't cease until four more runs had crossed the plate. Cody Prlina, Blaylock and Giordano had consecutive hits to help boost Lone Mountain's lead to 6-0.

Lone Mountain added single runs in the third and fourth innings, with Kyle Ford and Giordano collecting the RBIs. Needing four runs in the fifth to have the mercy-rule go into effect, Prlina drove in two runs and Giordano added one to balloon Lone Mountain's lead to 12-2.

Giordano finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs; Prlina was 2-for-4; Blaylock 2-for-3 and Hinricksen 2-for-2 with a homer and double.

In the second game, Hinricksen, who was probably the hardest-throwing pitcher in the tournament, was matched against Red Rock ace David Pettis, who was effective when he kept his pitches down in the strike zone. Alas, not all did, and Lone Mountain's batters took advantage of Pettis's mistakes.

Over the course of the six-inning game, Lone Mountain slugged 10 hits, including seven in its last two at-bats, when the winners struck for six runs. While Lone Mountain led 4-0 after four innings, it had stranded 10 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the first and second innings.

Lone Mountain got the clutch hits in the fifth inning, with Blaylock, Giordano and Blake Boley combining for four RBI as the Red Rock deficit moved to 9-0. The game reached mercy-rule consideration in the sixth when backup first baseman Dustin Matsui scored for Lone Mountain.

Giordano was 4-for-5 with three RBI, giving him twin bill totals of 7-for-9 and seven runs batted in. Not too shabby for the youngster, who won't be 14 until Sept. 14.

Lone Mountain averaged 11.5 runs per game, while allowing 3.5 rpg in going 7-1 in the tournament. Red Rock won its first three games, including a key 8-7 decision against Mountain Ridge in the winners' bracket finals. Lone Mountain then eliminated Mountain Ridge with an 11-0 win Tuesday.

Pahrump's Junior Division All-Stars were 0-2 in the tournament, losing 2-1 to Mountain Ridge and 13-12 to Peccole.