Earlier Saturday, the Vaqueros staved off elimination as Adam Ochart hit a pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to spark them to a 5-4 win against eighth-seeded Cypress at Golden West College.
Glendale (29-11) will meet top-seeded host Orange Coast (35-4-1) in a Super Regional championship contest at 11 a.m. today. An if-necessary championship game would be played about 30 minutes later.
Lira, a left-hander, handcuffed Mt. SAC, which entered the tournament batting .284. What helped Lira (5-1) was he studied Mt. SAC's batters during Glendale's 7-2 opening-round loss to the Mounties on Friday.
"I had confidence pitching in an elimination game and I thought about different ways to shut them down because those guys can hit," said Lira, who struck out three. "I was paying attention to them [Friday] and I just had to be able to go out there and attack them.
"It's the toughest game I've ever pitched, but you have to love being in these situations and know you have what it takes to win."
Glendale right fielder Cameron Gardner also provided a spark with his bat and glove in the second game. Gardner reached base in all five plate appearances and made a spectacular catch down the line to quell a potential comeback by the Mounties.
The fleet-footed Gardner finished four for four and drove in a pair of runs with a triple to cap a five-run fifth.
Gardner helped get things started for the Vaqueros in the bottom of the first when he was hit on the left elbow by a pitch from Phil Gonzalez (6-4). Gardner then scored two batters later on a double by Chris Stroh, a Crescenta Valley High graduate, to make it 1-0. A sacrifice fly by Edgar Montes made it 2-0 in the first.
A run-scoring double by Julian Jarrard made it 3-0 in the second.
