Defending National Champion Central Arizona College moved to 5-3 taking three-of-four at the Zinger Baseball Tournament this past weekend starting with a beauty from starter Matt Wilkinson and perfect closing from Josh Aribal as Central shutout Yavapai Community College 4-0 on Friday. 

The two combined on a three-hitter as Wilkinson struck out eight and reliever Aribal threw the last two striking out five of his six outs. The Vaqueros hit their first homerun of the year as Fisher Pyatt hit a two run homer in the seventh breaking a scoreless tie. 

Fourteen strikeouts for the two with a grand total of zero walks. 

In the second game against Lamar Community College of Colorado, Central had four doubles and Kooper Schulte's first homerun of the year to total up fifteen hits and it was a 12-5 win. The doubles came from Prince DeBoskie, Ashtin Webb, Pyatt, and Blake Young.

Theo Millas threw a nice four innings striking out four, with relievers Jasiah George, Daniel Davila, and Cam Demos striking out nine more between them for a total of thirteen, and twenty-seven in the first two games. Schulte drove in three runs.

Game three was a Central loss to El Paso Community College (welcome back guys). We haven't played them since before Covid, they've played here often in seasons past.

"We just had a couple innings get away from us this weekend" said Head Coach Anthony Gilich. 

Catcher Lou Albrecht hit yet another Central homerun with two men on and also added a two-run single to drive in five on the day in the 10-8 loss.

"Albrecht was the hitter of the day with his Saturday. We had a lot of really good individual performances this weekend" said Gilich. Albrecht had three hits and drove in five runs.

But get this.

Even though it was a 10-8 loss, Central pitchers combined for 21 strikeouts.

Maybe the few innings that got away from Central were in this game.

After three games the pitching staff had 48 strikeouts.

That's an average of sixteen a game. So far.

Starter Tommy Brandenburg struck out nine in four innings, Luke Meyers struck out seven in his three innings, and Felix Schlede and Ryan Schiefer struck out five more.

In the weekends final game on Sunday, Central stuck it to New Mexico Junior College with an 11-2 score. Central pitching struck out sixteen this Sunday.

64 strikeouts in four games.

At the plate, Marcus Harrison hit a two-run homerun, Mario Bejarano drove in four as DH, then struck out two in an inning on the hill, and the first five batters scored eight of the Vaquero eleven runs.

So a little bit of everything huh?

Central plays Wednesday afternoon against the Bears of Phoenix Community College at McSwain Field.

Free baseball!

Free GREAT baseball.