HIGHLANDS RANCH - An early front-runner has emerged for the distinction of most powerful high school baseball team in the state.

Arvada West has clobbered seven home runs in its first two games, including three Friday in a 5-3 win at No. 3 Mountain Vista in a Class 5A nonleague game.

And no, the power display by the sixth-ranked Wildcats has not occurred against lower-tier teams with shoddy pitching. They hit four in their opener last week against No. 8 Cherry Creek, then connected twice off Mountain Vista ace Danny Beck and once against reliever Kevin Lupton before holding off a late rally to improve to 2-0.

"We're just hitting pitches right now," said Arvada West senior Ryan Hill, who smacked a two-run homer and pitched 5 1/3 innings for the win. "Hopefully, we just keep this going."

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Hill hit a two-run homer over the 370-foot marker in center field and Lincoln Harmer followed with a solo blast to left. Beck, perhaps the top left-handed pitcher in the state, was sharp otherwise and pitched only three innings because it was Mountain Vista's opener and the Golden Eagles are being cautious with their ace in the early going.

Vince Capra clubbed a solo homer to center in the fifth to give A-West a 4-1 lead.

Wildcats coach Jim Capra is enjoying the early-season barrage of round-trippers, but said: "We just have to get a little more consistent. We're striking out too many times (nine Friday). But when we get good swings on good pitches, we're making something happen."

After being no-hit by Hill through four innings, Mountain Vista got an RBI single by Travis Cruz and sacrifice fly by Zach Higgins cut the deficit to 4-3.

Arvada West pushed it to 5-3 on a sixth-inning RBI single by Jake Smith and took that advantage into the bottom of the seventh. After Mountain Vista's first two batters reached, Arvada West summoned reliever Joe Zendejas.

Zendejas was aided by two outstanding catches by his corner outfielders, and the second resulted in a game-ending double-play.

"I think we battled well," Mountain Vista second baseman Bryan Schmerber said. "We had a few kinks in our system, but it's early. We'll come back after our trip to Florida and hopefully dominate out there."

Arvada West......003	011	0	-	5	10	3
Mountain Vista......100	020	0	-	3	3	1

A (ab-r-h-rbi) - Luke Campbell ss 4-0-0-0, Vince Capra 1b 4-2-3-1, Ryan Hill p-cf 4-1-2-2, Lincoln Harmer lf 3-1-2-1, Chris Biren dh 4-0-1-0, Mike Lemieux rf-p 0-0-0-0, Nick Capra c 4-0-1-0, Jared O'Neill cr 0-1-0-0, Rocco DeLorenzo cf-rf 2-0-0-0, Mike Haegerty ph 1-0-0-0, Mitch Shinkle 3b 3-0-0-0, Jake Smith 2b 2-0-1-1. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-k) - Hill (W, 2-0) 5.1-2-3-3-5-4, Lemieux 0.2-1-0-0-1-0, Joe Zendejas (Sv, 1) 1-0-0-0-0-0.

M - Travis Cruz cf 3-2-2-1, Zach Higgins ss 3-0-0-1, A.J. Schugel 3b 4-0-0-0, Evan Haezebrouck 1b 3-0-0-0, Danny Beck p-rf 2-0-0-0, Brandon Davis c 1-0-0-0, Eric Anderson lf 1-0-0-0, Downing McFadden dh 3-0-0-0, Nathan Bradley rf 0-0-0-0, Bryan Schmerber 2b 2-1-1-0. Pitching - Beck (L, 0-1) 3-5-3-3-0-5, Kevin Lupton 4-5-2-1-1-4.

E - Hill, Campbell 2, Higgins. LOB - AW 7, MV 6. 2B - Hill, Schmerber. HR - Hill, Harmer, V. Capra. SB - V. Capra 2, Harmer, Beck. SF - Higgins. HBP - Harmer, Beck.

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