By Vincent Liu

Town Crier Correspondent

After being mesmerized by an assortment of tantalizing breaking pitches, Mountain View High’s hitters woke up in time to pound out a 7-5 come-from-behind win over Los Altos last Saturday.

The win gave the Spartans a 2-1 season’s edge and bragging rights over their rivals.

More significantly, it all but eliminated the Eagles from playoff contention as both baseball teams share fourth place in the SCVAL El Camino Division with 9-7 records.

Mountain View took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning when it knocked out Los Altos starter Devon Schroeder with four runs on six hits and two walks. Eight of the nine batters reached base safely and only some sloppy base running prevented a bigger inning, as two Spartans were tagged out on the base path.

Curveball specialist Brian Johnson relieved Schroeder and shut down the Spartans with breaking pitches that seemed to have several speeds: slow, slower and even slower. For 3 2/3 innings, Johnson had batters lunging awkwardly at his offerings and allowed two harmless singles. He struck out the side in the third inning, with all four strikeouts coming on curve balls.

While Johnson was baffling hitters with his dippers, Los Altos put together a four-run outburst of its own in the top of the fifth inning to take a 5-4 lead.

That lead held up until the bottom of the sixth when, with one out, the Spartans strung together five consecutive hits to score three runs against a tiring Johnson, who began to hang his breaking pitches. The key blow was a two-run single by Brian Simoni. After Will Norton drove in Simoni with a double, Brian Frassetti lined a single to centerfield, where the Eagles’ Thomas Roux made a clean scoop and nailed Norton at the plate with a two-hop bullet.

“I knew a curve was coming. I was waiting for it and I hit a hanger,” Simoni said of his game-winning knock. “This is my biggest hit of the year.”

He also hit a clutch two-out two-run single in the second inning for a game-high four RBIs.

Spartans’ pitching coach Mike Dalton was not surprised by Simoni’s heroics in clutch situations.

“Brian is a good contact hitter,” he said. “He’d put the ball in play all year and had few Ks.”

Losing pitcher Johnson, who normally goes no more than three or four innings, admitted he tired at the end.

“I was hanging my curves and I got tagged,” he said.

Mountain View’s sophomore starter Eric Davis, who hit a grand slam against the Eagles in their first meeting, hurled four strong innings before faltering in the fifth. He was relieved by Tristan Shuman, who picked up the win with 2 1/3 innings of hitless ball.

The fact that Shuman, slated to be the starting pitcher for the next game, was used in late-inning relief, underscores the rivalry between the two schools.

“This is a very satisfying win,” Dalton said. “My players showed a lot of heart coming back.”

After giving away a game to Lynbrook April 27, Los Altos bounced back with a pair of victories last week - including an impressive win over league champ Palo Alto.

The Eagles meet Palo Alto today and finish the season against second-place Santa Clara Thursday. Los Altos must win both road games to have any chance at a playoff berth.