Blame Mountain Ridge’s baseball team, the missing dimpled practice balls and Mountain Pointe’s Kristen McCann for Mountain Ridge’s softball team’s off night at the plate.

Despite the lack of power, Mountain Ridge’s veteran team manufactured enough runs to halt the momentum of Mountain Pointe’s underdog story and advance to the Division I state semifinals with a 4-2 win. After the game at Rose Mofford Softball Complex, Mountain Ridge coach Michele Markham tried to pinpoint why her lineup struggled.

Her team stayed up late Monday to watch Mountain Ridge’s baseball team pull off one of the bigger baseball playoff upsets in recent years, with Monday’s 4-2 victory over Hamilton. On Tuesday, Markham’s team arrived to its game a bit tired and without its practice balls, something the superstitious Markham felt was another misstep.

But McCann is the biggest reason why Mountain Ridge’s bats were kept in check for the most part while collecting six singles. The Mountain Pointe pitcher’s quick release and arsenal induced a lot of ground outs and a handful of pop-ups.

McCann also delivered at the plate, where her two run hard-hit single just below the glove of Mountain Pointe’s second baseman pulled Mountain Pointe ahead 2-1 in the sixth inning. But in the bottom half of that inning, Mountain Ridge scored three runs with the help of an error, a pass ball and a two RBI single by leadoff hitter Taylor Kaye.

“We are a good, solid offensive team, so I knew we weren’t going to only score one run,” Markham said. “But I was getting a little worried about at what time we were going to score some runs.”

Mountain Pointe’s lineup had its chances to score more runs against lefty Giselle Juarez but stranded three runners in the sixth and two each in the fifth and first innings.

Juarez (15 strikeouts) stepped up when Mountain Pointe threatened.

“We know we can hit, and we never give up,” said Juarez, a Fresno State verbal commit.

Mountain Pointe’s underdog story as the lowest seeded (No. 12) team remaining in the state tournament isn’t over.

It’ll get another shot to advance when it plays No. 2 seed Sandra Day O’Connor on Wednesday at Rose Mofford in an elimination game. The next game for No. 1 seed Mountain Ridge figures to be quite a family affair.

Markham’s cousin, Carrie Markham, is listed as one of Xavier’s coaches. Mountain Ridge and Xavier will play on Thursday to determine which team will advance to Monday’s D-I final.

Xavier defeated Pinnacle 5-4 Tuesday to advance to Thursday's game. Michele Markham’s dad and sister are assistant coaches on Mountain Ridge’s team.