Chris Moon Memorial Baseball Tournament

Mar. 27-30: Cherry Field

 

San Marcos (CA) beat Tucson 7-6 Saturday morning to capture the championship of the Chris Moon Invitational. The Badgers beat San Marcos 6-0 in pool play on Wednesday but the Royals battled back through bracket play to earn the rematch in the final played at Cherry Field.

San Marcos led 2-0 heading to the bottom of the second inning but Diego Bejarano knocked in Omar Escobedo and Ruben Kito Castro to tie the game up and then Raul Soto Romero put the Badgers up 4-2 with two RBIs of his own.

Each team was held in check from there until San Marcos plated four runs in the top of the sixth to take a 6-4 lead and the team added another run in the top of the seventh to make it 7-4. That final run proved to be the game-winner as the Badgers battled back with two runs in the bottom of the seventh off the bat of Bejarano but the rally came up one run short.

@TucsonBadgers Diego Bejarano named MVP of the Chris Moon Invitational #azpreps365 pic.twitter.com/gzJTvY49uL

— Andy Morales (@AZPreps365Andy) March 30, 2019

Bejarano finished the game with three hits and four RBI and he was named the MVP of the tournament. Francisco Olea added two hits for the Badgers and Soto Romero had two RBI. Mario Bejarano collected seven strikeouts and Dominic Rodriguez also saw pitching action for the Badgers.

For the Royals, Diego Sandoval, Logan Ring and Dominic Roderick had three hits each. Ring had two RBI and Jack Winterbauer went 2-4 with 2 RBI. Josh Swanson, Brent Hyman and Winterbauer took the mound for the Royals. Hyman picked up the win.

Tucson is 2-6 in power-ranking games and the Badgers are ranked No. 27 in the 6A Conference. Region standings no longer guarantee a playoff spot in 5A and 6A action so the Badgers need to finish in the top 24 to clinch a play-in spot.

(Zack Fitzgerald/Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

In the third place game, Zack Fitzgerald gave up one hit to pace Flowing Wells to a 10-0 win over Cesar Chavez. Fitzgerald had a no-hitter broken up in the top of the sixth on a two-out single up the middle by Mark Torres.

Ernie Armenta went 3-4 with two doubles and three RBI to lead the Caballeros at the plate. Louie Padilla went 2-4 with two doubles and two RBI and Alan Valdez collected two RBI.

This was the first outing of the year for Fitzgerald and Flowing Wells (4-7) will need his arm down the stretch in hopes of climbing into the top 24 to claim a conference play-in berth. The Caballeros will start the week off ranked 33rd in the 5A Conference with seven games left in the regular season.

Cesar Chavez is 5-4 in power-ranking games and the Champions are ranked No. 23 in the 6A Conference.