Ed Petruska-Pinal Central

SIGNAL PEAK – The second-ranked Central Arizona College baseball team moved a giant step closer to clinching the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference title and the top seed in the upcoming Division I Region 1 playoffs with Saturday's doubleheader sweep of Pima at McSwain Field.

Central's winning streak stands at 28 following 9-2 and 2-1 victories over the second-place Aztecs, who had won 15 of their previous 16. The Vaqueros are 39-5 overall, 26-2 in ACCAC play and 17-1 at home. They have a six-game lead over Pima and seven-game lead over third place South Mountain (19-9 ACCAC) with 10 conference games remaining before the postseason begins on May 4.

"These were big games," CAC coach Anthony Gilich said. "We played a good team and competed hard. We need to keep our foot on the gas and not take anything for granted."

Central's Game 1 victory came in relatively easy fashion. Boosted by a pair of three-run innings, the Vaqueros led 7-0 after four.

Solo home runs by Marcus Harrison in the fifth inning and Fisher Pyatt in the seventh powered CAC to the nine-inning Game 2 victory. They are tied for the team lead in homers with four.

"What I liked is we found two different ways to win," Gilich said. "There were a lot of positives, but there's also things we can clean up and get better at."

After 19th-ranked Pima (33-11, 20-8 ACCAC) tallied two in the fifth of the seven-inning opener, CAC answered with two in the sixth.

The Vaqueros collected seven hits off Pima starter Anthony Imhoff and two relievers. The big blows were Harrison's two-run triple in the third and a two-run homer by Blake Avila – his third of the season – in the fourth.

Imhoff came into the game with an 8-1 record and a 2.23 ERA. But the left-hander departed after allowing seven runs (six earned) in 3 1/3 innings.

CAC starter Matt Wilkinson gave up two runs and five hits while striking out four and walking two in his six-inning stint. The left-hander raised his record 8-0, but saw his ERA climb from 0.94 to 1.13.

Wilkinson now has 100 strikeouts with just 13 walks in 63 2/3 innings pitched.

Daniel Davila worked a 1-2-3 seventh for Central, striking out the final two batters.

Central took a 1-0 lead in the first when Tyrese Johnson led off with a walk, took third on an errant pickoff throw by Imhoff and came home on a sacrifice fly by Jonathon Hernandez.

Johnson scored again in the third following a leadoff single. He took second when Hernandez was hit by a pitch and came around with one out on Mario Bejarano's opposite-field double down the left-field line. Harrison's two-run triple to right came with two outs and also was an opposite-field shot.

Avila's two-run homer in the fourth followed a one-out RBI single by Johnson, who had two hits and scored three runs. Avila also had two hits.

CAC's sixth-inning runs scored on a bases-loaded walk to Hernandez and Lou Albrecht's sacrifice fly.

The Aztecs' pitchers combined for six hit batters and two walks.

Pima, which was 11-1 in road games coming in, scored its Game 2 run in the seventh inning off starter Patrick Steitz to make it 1-1. Steitz struck out 12 in 6 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and one walk.

Michael Trausch (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings to get the win. Josh Aribal worked the ninth to notch his fifth save.

The game ended in bang-bang fashion. Pima had runners at second and third with two outs when an Aribal pitch sailed over the head of catcher Albrecht. The ball caromed off the backstop directly to Albrecht, who made a diving tag at the plate for the final out.

The Vaqueros will play two doubleheaders this week – at home against Cochise on Tuesday and at Arizona Western on Saturday.