Mountain Ridge continued to survive in one of the nation’s premier high school baseball tournaments.

The Mountain Lions defeated a big fish in high school sports, California De La Salle, 2-1 Wednesday to advance to the final of the National Classic High School Baseball Tournament in Anaheim. Mountain Ridge is the first team from Arizona to reach the final of the 26th annual National Classic Tournament.

It’ll face California El Toro (9-3) in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. final at Cal State Fullerton.

“It’s big-time for an AZ team to be in (the National Classic final),” Mountain Ridge coach Lance Billingsley said.

Two sophomores helped bring home the winning run in the bottom of the seventh for Mountain Ridge.

Jason Harayda’s single scored Matthew Liberatore to give Mountain Ridge the walk off victory against De La Salle.

Mountain Ridge (14-4) held off Servite, Calif., 10-9, and La Jolla Country Day, Calif., 2-0, in its first two tournament games.