The reward for victory was rest.

Rarely has not playing baseball felt so good to a baseball team. No. 6 seeded Mountain Pointe advanced to the 5A Division I semifinals with a 6-5 win over No. 10 Red Mountain Saturday at Glendale’s Camelback Ranch.

Now the Pride gets an extra two days off as the double-elimination state tournament goes into its second week.

"Now we’re in a situation where we can relax a little bit," Mountain Pointe’s Josh Alexander said. “This was huge."

It was Alexander who shut the door on the Lions as he came in from center field and pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to get the save.

"That’s my role as a pitcher,” Alexander said. “Two innings is the max. I can come in and throw as hard as I can every time.”

He relieved Junior Zepada, who relieved starter Kevin Cron at the beginning of the fourth inning. It was Zepeda who picked up the victory.

A foot injury forced Cron to come out of the game. Mountain Pointe coach Brandon Buck said the injury would not keep Cron from playing next week.

Of course Cron will benefit with the extra rest at Mountain Pointe won’t play again until next Thursday. Red Mountain must play again on Tuesday in the loser’s bracket against Mesquite. If the Lions win they will face Mountain Pointe with the winner advancing to Saturday’s state championship game.

Red Mountain would have to beat the Pride twice to reach the title game.

Mountain Pointe got as timely a hitting as it can get with five of its six runs coming with two outs.

With the game tied 3-3, the Pride scored three times after two were out in the fifth inning.

Jordan Kipper walked, Cron singled and then Alexander singled to right field to bring home one run. After another run scored on an error, Anthony Balderama drove home another with a double to center.

"If you want to win you have to go out there and find a way to do it and we did that," Buck said.

Alexander also figured in the scoring in the second inning when he scored Mountain Pointe’s first run on a squeeze play. In the third he drove home Kipper with a single to center off Cole Gleason, who took the loss for the Lions.

"I love this," Alexander said. "There’s no pressure on you unless you put it on yourself. I try to tell the young guys that. We just get the job done. It was a team win."

Red Mountain led 3-1 in the third inning when Gleason and Ryne Dean scored on singles by Tarran Beasley and Brandon Zimmerman. The Lions got to within 6-5 in the sixth when Matt Tady homered to left field. Kelly Walsh later scored on a sacrifice fly by Dean.

In the first game of the day, at Camelback Ranch, Chaparral was eliminated from the 5A-II tournament with a 10-8 loss to Goodyear Millennium.