Vaquero's SP George Castillo gave up two soft hits and struck out ten Artichokes in seven innings as Central Arizona College won at Scottsdale Saturday with a final of 9-1.

#25 started by striking out four of the first five 'chokes with high fastballs mixed in with low and away sliders for swinging third strikes, gave up one BB, and this was a dominating performance.

"Whew!" said a fan after Castillo's fourth strikeout in the second inning.

The Vaqueros have won five in a row and Castillo moves to 6-2 on the season and leads the ACCAC in strikeouts. Where did you find this guy coach?

Centerfielder Tim Hergert doubled and tripled in his first two at bats, walked two more times, and is now 6 for 8 in the last two games. His batting average has jumped to .331. He has scored 30 runs, leads the team with 13 stolen bases, and is third with BB at 17 on the season. Jaime Estrada walked twice more to up his team leading total to 29 and things are going pretty well when your lead-off man gets six trips.

Jake Brown, Cooper Esmay, Colby Hamilton, and Cody Erickson each had two hits on the day, with Erickson doubling and scoring twice, knocking in two. Erickson and MJ Hubbs both took fastballs to the shoulder, MJ's with a full house for another RBI. These hitters are smart. Caleb Henderson hit a towering fly homerun to left that cleared the foul pole by six feet in the third inning.

"Well, the mountain backdrop is really cool" said head coach Anthony Gilich. The only seats at the Scottsdale Community College park are the aluminum seats behind home plate. Hm.

Blade can be reached at bladestage@gmail.com