Win’s a win

Suns overcome sloppy 4th, defeat Cavs in OT/

The Gila Ridge (12-5) baseball team beat the Kings from Kofa (2-14) by a score of 10-5 on Tuesday evening. The Hawks are hoping to squeak into the playoffs as they currently sit just outside the 16th spot. The Gila Ridge bats have scored at least ten runs in each game during their current four game winning streak.

Leading the offensive surge was sophomore Anane Wilson who was a perfect 3-for-3 with a run scored, stolen base, while driving in two. Senior Blake Avila and sophomore Jack Scanlan each had a pair of hits in the contest. Avila scored twice and had three RBIs while Scanlan scored two runs, stole a base, and drove in one.

Senior Alex Guerra was the beneficiary of all the run support as he kept the Kofa hitters off-balance. Guerra went five innings, giving up two earned runs on seven hits, and walking three. Sophomore Aiden Schmidgall was on the hill for the final two innings, giving up no earned runs,

while striking out two and walking one.

The Hawks and Kings meet again tonight under the lights at Kofa High at 7 p.m.

Cibola 7, Yuma 1

The Raiders (7-11) were able to lock up the Criminals (5-12) on the basepaths. After allowing Yuma sophomore Justin Bouts to rip an RBI double in the top of the first inning, the Cibola pitching and defense zoned in to put zeroes on the scoreboard the rest of the way. Raider pitchers struck out eight Criminals on the day, walking one, and only allowing the one run.

Cibola hitters were able to get seven runs off of Yuma senior starting pitcher Ilan Rendon on eight hits and a couple of walks. Rendon also struck out three.

The teams will meet again tonight at Yuma

High at 6 p.m.

Prep Golf YC 168, Parker 206, Wickenburg 221

The Shamrock golfers got a win at the Emerald Canyon Golf Course in Parker. Shooting low for Yuma Catholic were sophomores Austin Estes and Brennan Reese with scores of 40. Junior Braden Hunt and senior Addison Lutes rounded out the Shamrock scoring with a 42 and 46 respectively.

The Shamrocks look to prep for the state playoffs coming up Monday and Tuesday in Tucson.

Prep Softball

Gila Ridge 11, Kofa 0

The Hawks (13-4) dominated in a win over Kofa (510) as they look to make a push towards the playoffs. Gila Ridge jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the first inning and that’s the way the score remained until the fourth. The Hawk hitters broke through to score nine runs over the final two innings to give Gila Ridge a runrule victory over their local rivals. Kenzie Nakasawa collected three hits including a three-run homer, while Carmen Melendez, Cassidy Stanton, Tinley Schmidgall, and Addison Duke each picked up two hits.

Schmidgall was also the winning pitcher as she allowed seven hits over her five innings or work. The Gila Ridge defense backed her up with two double plays.

The teams meet again today at Gila Ridge High School at 4 p.m.

JUCO Softball

On their heels early, the Arizona Western Lady Matadors (30-15 overall, 18-10 ACCAC) could not recover in a pair of losses to the Division I leading Yavapai RoughRiders (30-5, 252) Tuesday afternoon. Yavapai’s offense was sparked in the first batter in the bottom of the first when Mia Weckel homered to start the game. The RoughRiders offense would score two more in the inning to take a 3-0 lead.

Angela Oros homered to get AWC on the board but Yavapai capitalized on a pair of Matador errors to score eight runs in the bottom of the second to open up the lead.

Nicole Moran’s RBI groundout brought Cielo Echols home in the third, but that would be the final run of the game as Yavapai cruised to an 11-2 victory over AWC.

Defense was a problem again for AWC in the second game with Yavapai striking for five first inning runs, using a pair of homers to cash in the opportunities.

Nylze Salazar’s tworun double in the second brought AWC close again, but another pair of homers and pair of Matador errors lead to five more runs in the second for the RoughRiders.

Oros cranked her second homer of the day, a two run homer in the top of the third right in front of a Chloe Garcia homer that cut the difference to 10-5.

But Yavapai added another five runs in the bottom of the third, for the third straight inning, using a Matador error in front of a homer.

Yavapai would add another run in the fourth on a solo homer before Garcia smashed a two-run home run. Christina Robles added a two-run double to prolong the game.

But a couple of dropped fly balls and a throwing error helped Yavapai score two more runs and get the run-rule victory, running their winning streak to 14 games.

AWC will look to bounce back and build post-season momentum on Saturday when they return to Yuma for Sophomore Day against the Pima Aztecs.

LEFT: KOFA CENTER FIELDER J.J. ORTIZ tracks down a fly ball off the bat of Gila Ridge’s Leo Magallanes in the bottom of the second inning of Tuesday afternoon’s game at Gila Ridge.

ABOVE: GILA RIDGE SECOND BASEMAN KEATON YOUNG (2) throws to first to complete a double play after forcing out Kofa’s Sebastian Villegas at second in the top of the second inning of Tuesday afternoon’s game at Gila Ridge. The play started with Kofa’s David Salas grounding to Gila Ridge shortstop Leo Magallanes (1).

PHOTOs By Randy HOeFT/YUMA SUN BUy THese PHOTOs aT yUMasUn.COM GILA RIDGE SHORTSTOP LEO MAGALLANES gets horizontal as he tries to get to a ball off the bat of Kofa’s Angel Fragozo in the top of the third inning of Tuesday afternoon’s game at Gila Ridge. Magallanes knocked the ball down, but could not make the play to get Fraozo.

GILA RIDGE CATCHER GAGE WARNOCK (right) puts the tag on a sliding Mario Perez of Kofa who was trying to score from second base on a hit to right field by J.J. Ortiz in the top of the first inning of Tuesday afternoon’s game at Gila Ridge. The out was the third out of the inning.