Ed Petruska-Pinal Central

SIGNAL PEAK – The postseason came to a shockingly premature conclusion for the fifth-ranked Central Arizona College baseball team on Saturday.

Arizona Western pushed across three runs in the top of the ninth inning to emerge with a 5-4 victory over the Vaqueros in Game 3 of their Region 1 tournament semifinal series at McSwain Field. Top-seeded Central (47-12) was unable to hold off the fourth-seeded Matadors (34-16) despite taking a two-run lead on two occasions.

"It's not the way we wanted it to end," CAC coach Anthony Gilich said. "Getting beat is one thing. Ending like the way it did makes it sting a little bit more."

Josh Aribal, pitching in relief of Central starter Theo Millas, had retired nine of the 10 batters he faced after taking the mound in the sixth inning. But Western came alive in the ninth to erase CAC's 4-2 lead.

Wesley Estrella, who led the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference with a .395 batting average during the regular season but was 0 for 10 in the series, led off with a single. Tyler Leroy followed with a single and Ben Fierenzi – who was attempting to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt -- drew a four-pitch walk.

Noah Roberts then poked an opposite-field single to left to drive in two runs for a 4-4 tie.

Matt Wilkinson took over for Aribal with runners at first and second. Gabriel Perez put down a bunt that was fielded by Wilkinson, who made a wild throw to first. The error allowed the go-ahead run to score.

Wilkinson, the ACCAC pitcher of the year, retired the next three batters.

Aribal came into the game with a 0.86 ERA. He had allowed only one hit in 21 innings. But he had not pitched more than three innings in his previous 14 outings.

"I waited too long" to bring in Wilkinson, Gilich said. "That's on me. After the first hit or two, I should have got (Aribal) out of there. But he's high-compete and he's got it done all year."

The Vaqueros took a 2-0 lead against AWC starter Juan Gil Franco. Jonathon Hernandez singled with two outs in the first and came around on a double by Ashtin Webb after advancing to second on a wild pitch. Mario Bejarano had a sacrifice fly in the fourth following consecutive one-out singles by Marcus Harrison and Luke Thiele.

Western tied it 2-2 in the fifth, getting an RBI single from Perez and Marcus Graham's run-scoring fielder's choice grounder.

Central went up 4-2 with two runs in the sixth. Gil Franco hit Hernandez with one out. Hernandez advanced on Webb's groundout and came home on a single by Harrison, who later scored on a balk after reaching third on a wild pitch.

AWC reliever Jorge Carvajal kept the Vaqueros off the board in the seventh and the eighth innings despite giving up a two-out triple to Tyrese Johnson in the seventh.

Roland Marte, who pitched one inning for the save in Thursday's 1-0 win by the Matadors and eight on Friday in CAC's 2-0 victory, retired the Vaqueros in order in the ninth.

"There's a big difference between disappointment and failure, and this certainly wasn't a failure," Gilich said. "We feel disappointed for sure. But I'm really proud of these guys. You see the tears and the long faces, all the brotherhood they formed with each other. That's why it stings. This was a tough one."

Hernandez and Harrison both had two of Central's seven hits. Roberts went 3 for 4 and Leroy had two hits as Western finished with 10.

CAC reached the NJCAA World Series in each of the previous three years the tournament was held (it was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), winning national titles last season and in 2019 and taking second in 2021.

"It's hard," Gilich said. "The last three years we've played for the national championship. Everybody wants to be the one to eliminate us. We've been taking everybody's best shot, best punches. To navigate that for four straight years is extremely difficult.

"We just quite couldn't get it done today."