Prep Baseball Report

5A Feature Game of the Week



Mountain Vista Upsets Top Ranked ThunderRidge

It was a duel of two of the top pitching prospects in the Colorado region that did not disappoint.  Senior pitchers, Nick Leonard (Mountain Vista) and AJ Jones of ThunderRidge dueled it out and at one point in the game combined to retire 20 straight batters.  However, it was Leonard that outlasted his counterpart throwing a complete game shutout notching 13 strikeouts while Jones tallied up 8 giving up only 4 hits on the day. 

Leonard, the senior heading to Washington State this fall on scholarship, looked awfully impressive in his first appearance against ThunderRidge since getting stung for seven runs against them in last year’s state playoff game.  Leonard had pin point command, consistently hitting around 88-90mph with his fastball, and topping out at 92mph.  What’s more impressive is the movement on his fastball, breaking in on right handed hitters, which gave the ThunderRidge offensive attack fits all night. Leonard utilized his full arsenal of pitches, including his 12 to 6 curve ball which sat around 70-72 mph and a deceiving change-up clocking at 80-82mph.  Though he had command most of the game, he did hang a few curveballs that ThunderRidge hitters took advantage of.

AJ Jones the 6-0 senior headed to BYU on scholarship also had an impressive outing.  Jones, who has nice late movement on his fastball, was consistently around 88-90mph and topping out at 91mph.  Jones fared well with his command early on, keeping the ball low in the zone with a nice complimenting slider (77-79mph) that kept Mountain Vista off balance.  As the game wore on, Jones’ difficulty came in the top of the sixth when he started leaving pitches up in the zone.  Although he only walked four batters, two of them came to lead off the inning.  With one out, he then intentionally walked a batter to load the bases and set up a potential double-play ball.  However, senior OF Michael Dunnebecke took full advantage of a belt high fastball, hitting a rocket into left center field for a three run triple the proved to be the game winner for Mountain Vista.

Though Mountain Vista came out on top, this game was a great showing of some of the top pitching talent in the Colorado region.  2 aces, going head to head in a good ol’ fashion pitchers duel, battling it out until the end.  Should these two teams meet again (seemingly very likely) in the playoffs, it will guarantee to be a rematch for the ages.  Stay on the lookout for these two promising talents, in Nick Leonard and AJ Jones, as PBR will continue to keep close tabs on both players