SIGNAL PEAK — Losing both ends of Tuesday's doubleheader to Cochise by wide margins had no lingering effects on the Central Arizona College baseball team.

The lineup produced from top to bottom, and the pitching was back in form as the Vaqueros cruised to a 7-1 victory over Scottsdale on Friday at CAC Field.

"Cochise is good, but that wasn't us," CAC coach Jon Wente said of the 9-1 and 10-0 losses to the 10th-ranked Apaches. "We had to flush it out and move on because this was the most important game we could play, and our guys responded in that manner."

Each of Central's seven RBIs came from a different player. The sixth-ranked Vaqueros (10-4, 3-2 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) scored two runs in each of the first three innings off Scottsdale starter Matt Marino, and they finished with 13 hits — two more than their two-game total against Cochise.

"For us to put up multiple runs in multiple innings certainly is a good sign for us moving forward," Wente said. "They had guys on base early where they could have got back into the game, but we kept staying on them and had them down so well that we were in a good position to finish the game."

Having ace Nicco Blank on the mound gave the Vaqueros an extra shot of confidence. The sophomore right-hander raised his record to 3-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.17 by holding the Artichokes (8-5, 3-2) to one run and five hits in six innings. Blank walked two and struck out nine, including the last four he faced.

"It always helps when you have Nicco out there," Wente said. "He wants to be the guy who sets the tone for us. When he got settled in, he was as good as he usually is."

Blank retired the side in order in the first, but allowed three baserunners in each of the next two innings and two in the fourth. But despite getting four hits, two walks and a hit batter during that span, Scottsdale produced just one run on Mike Gordner's sacrifice fly in the second.

Conner Noble took over for CAC in the seventh, and the freshman right-hander retired all nine batters he faced to earn his first save.

Colby Hamilton went 3 for 4 with an RBI, and the Vaqueros got two hits and one RBI apiece from Andris Rizquez, Cody Erickson and Aaron Smith. Manny Ramirez Jr. also had two hits, and Cody Farrell, Spencer O'Neil and MJ Hubbs had the other RBIs.

Singles by Rizquez and Hamilton on Marino's first three pitches led to Central taking a 2-0 lead in the first on Farrell's sacrifice fly and Erickson's run-scoring single. Rizquez and Hamilton delivered back-to-back RBI singles in the second to put the Vaqueros up 4-1.

CAC loaded the bases with nobody out in the third on a walk to Farrell and singles by Erickson and Ramirez. O'Neil followed with a run-scoring fielder's choice grounder, and Hubbs' RBI double — the Vaqueros' lone extra-base hit of the day — made it 6-1.

Central's final run came in the fifth when Ramirez singled off reliever Felix Zimmerlee, advanced to third on two wild pitches and came across on Smith's two-out single.