FULLERTON — Junior pitcher Alex Moreno tried to help Mountain View’s baseball team to the finish line Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division 9 championship game at Cal State Fullerton.

But Nuview Bridge took advantage of two errors in the sixth inning and added three hits to score all three of its runs as it rallied to beat the Vikings 3-2.

Moreno, who threw a complete game, allowed nine hits with six strikeouts.

Mountain View (15-12) finished fourth in the Mission Valley League but used strong pitching throughout the playoffs to reach the finals. It was trying to win the school’s first CIF-SS baseball championship.

The Vikings had only allowed two runs in the playoffs leading up to Saturday’s final.

“Honestly, it’s real devastating for me and the team,” Moreno said of the loss. “It was really tough man. We just made a lot of errors and it got away. Maybe next year we’ll get it.”

Moreno used his bat to get the Vikings on the scoreboard first. He hit a two-out single and stole second base in the third inning. Luke Davila’s double drove in Moreno and Ryan Molinar followed with a single to right that scored Davila for a 2-0 lead.

The Vikings finished with six hits. Davila and Ryan Molinar had two hits apiece.

The Vikings’ defense shut down a potential Nuview Bridge rally in the fourth inning.

Nuview Bridge got the first two runners aboard. A single to center by Carson Lagor looked like it might score a run, but Tobias Olague was thrown out at home on a great relay throw by Mountain View. The Vikings then got a strikeout from Moreno and ground out to escape the inning still ahead 2-0.

The Vikings though had trouble on defense in the sixth when Nuview Bridge scored three runs on three hits and a pair of errors.

After the Knights got a runner aboard on an error at second base, they loaded the bases with no outs. Isaac Murillo hit a slow roller up third for a single that scored Olague, and Joshy Rodiguez came around to score on a fielding error to make it 2-2.

Nelson Lara gave Knights the lead for good with a sacrifice fly to left that scored Lagor for the go-ahead run.

Nuview Bridge (17-10) closed the seventh by striking out the side.

“To get here we pitched really well and played defense well,” Mountain View coach Angel Lopez said, “and that was the one bad inning (sixth). And unfortunately in the finals you have one bad inning and that’s what happens.”

Mountain View couldn’t muster any offense over the final two innings.

“We made some errors and he (Moreno) threw a lot of pitches in that (sixth) inning,” Lopez said. “We still had a chance, we got out of it (only down 3-2). But we couldn’t finish other chances.

“Give the other team credit, they’re a good team and they pitched well and made good plays. It’s always going to happen, somebody is going to lose. But I’m happy with our guys and the season they had, because they got better during the season and stepped it up in the playoffs.

“We got a taste of it (playing for a championship), so maybe we can duplicate it next year and have another chance.”