Ironwood Ridge overcame a shaky start to the Chris Moon Memorial tournament held this past week at the Oscar Romero Ballpark located in central Tucson, dropping two games on the opening day of the tourney. The resulting 1-2 record in pool play translated into a No. 7 ranking heading into bracket play on Thursday and the Nighthawks responded by knocking out No. 2 Rio Rico 7-0 and beating No. 6 Skyline 4-1 in the semifinal round Friday morning before beating No. 1 Tucson 2-0 in the championship game later in the day.

Senior pitcher Noah Peters limited the Badgers to two hits and two walks but the Tucson pitching duo of freshman Alex Valenzuel and sophomore Milo Vasquez also held firm with two hits given up to the Nighthawks (11-4-1) until the deciding runs were scored in the top of the sixth inning. Junior Brody Young started the inning off with a single and then senior Michale Chop was intentionally walked one out later to put two on. Vazquez induced fly ball to get two outs but junior Clifford Graves came up next and he singled to first base to score Young and then Chop scored on a passed ball for the 2-0 lead.

The Nighthawks start 4A Kino Region play with a trip to Mica Mountain (5-7) on Tuesday and Tucson will travel to Hamilton (6-4) on the same night.

Ironwood Ridge. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Charlotte Christian (11-3) of North Carolina went 6-0 to earn the championship of the Lancer Baseball Classic hosted by Salpointe at the Reid Park Annex. The Knights earned the top seed in bracket play and the program went on to beat No. 2 Canyon del Oro 11-6 in the final Friday evening.

The Dorados (12-3) went 5-1 over the week and the team battled back several times in the championship but the program couldn’t overcome the five runs the Knights scored in the bottom of the second inning to take a 7-2 lead. The Dorados were able to cut the lead down to 8-6 but the Knights scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth for the final margin.

Senior Francisco Rivero went 2-3 for the Dorados with an RBI triple, junior Brayden Hoyler went 2-4 with a triple and an RBI and junior Gatlin Geile went 2-2 with a double and an RBI. Freshman Bostyn Dart and junior Fabian Acuna saw pitching action for the Dorados.

Sophomore Banks Stevenson led the Knights by going 3-3with a home run and two RBI and freshman Chase Woodley went 3-3.

The Dorados will travel to Rincon/University (0-14) on Monday.