HIGHLANDS RANCH — If first times are usually the sweetest, it’s relevant for Ty Lightley.
The Dakota Ridge senior hit his first home run as an Eagle on Monday. He led — and finished — an 11-2 victory over host Mountain Vista in a Class 5A nonleague baseball game.
Lightley ripped a one-out, solo homer in the first inning, turned in good plays at shortstop, then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to end it.
Seeing its first action since March 24, and its first in-state game since March 16, Dakota Ridge (4-3) won its third in a row.
“That was my first home run in high school and it felt great,” Lightley said. “It felt really good, and coming in to close felt even better.”
Eagles coach Jeff Legault said Lightley, who entered the game batting .583, “is really hitting the ball this year, making good plays at shortstop, just doing a good job.”
Legault added: “I was very pleased for having two weeks off, not knowing what to expect. … I liked our two-strike approaches, and we shortened up with guys on third base. We had a bunch of good hits; we came through 1 through 9 (in the lineup).”
Dakota Ridge banged out 16 hits against four Golden Eagles pitcher and plated runs in six of the seven innings.
Lightley had two hits and two RBIs. Leadoff hitter Dante Tamez was 3-for-5, scored twice and had two RBIs. Bailey Collins, Kyle Derr, Ryan Faircloth, Thomas Nagel and Peyton Turner each had two hits.
Dakota Ridge right-hander Carter Akerfelds pitched six innings for his second victory.
Mountain Vista slipped to 1-3, and coach Ron Quintana said his guys “are trying to find ourselves.”
Dakota Ridge plays Chaparral at home Wednesday before heading into Jefferson County League play Saturday in hosting Pomona.
Mountain Vista, which lost its out-of-state trip because of the Front Range blizzard a couple of weeks ago, has a nonleague game at Lakewood on Wednesday.
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or @neildevlin
