Ed Petruska-Pinal Central

SIGNAL PEAK — There will be a decisive Game 3 in the Region 1 baseball tournament semifinal series between Central Arizona College and Arizona Western, and it promises to be a doozy.

The fifth-ranked Vaqueros avoided elimination with a gripping 2-0 victory over the Matadors on Friday at McSwain Field, one day after losing a 1-0 heartbreaker. Saturday's game begins at noon, with the winner advancing to next week's region championship series against Pima.

Patrick Steitz limited Western to two hits in eight innings, and top-seeded Central did all of its scoring in the first to boost its record to 47-11.

"Patrick threw great like he has all year, we were able to push across a couple of runs early, and that was the game," CAC coach Anthony Gilich said. "It's just been really tough to score."

After putting only two runners into scoring position on Thursday, the Vaqueros wasted no time striking against AWC right-hander Roland Marte. Tyrese Johnson led off the bottom of the first with a single and came around on a triple to left-center by Jonathon Hernandez. Ashtin Webb followed with an RBI groundout to second.

"It got us going," Hernandez said of his second three-bagger of the season. "When I got to third, I knew someone was going to hit me in."

Hernandez has a team-leading .331 average.

"Before the game, I told the boys to 'follow me.' I'm glad I was able to get it done," Hernandez said. "I knew when we scored those two runs, we pretty much had the game. That took off a huge amount of pressure."

The possibility of being eliminated after just two postseason games did not weigh heavy on the team, he said.

"Coming into today, we were the same as we were yesterday – expecting to win," Hernandez said.

Steitz raised his record to 9-1. The 6-foot-8 right-hander came in with an ERA of 1.18, second-lowest in the nation behind Thursday's hard-luck loser Matt Wilkinson (1.08).

"I've pitched well all year, so I wasn't trying to do anything special," Steitz said. "That's about the worst thing you can do. I just did the best I could."

Steitz retired 22 of the 26 batters he faced and 14 of the last 15 in lowering his ERA to 1.06. He struck out six and walked two.

"These are the games you want to play in," he said. "Scoring early is always big for team morale."

And when his teammates gave him that 2-0 cushion, "I told myself the game's over. I didn't think they were going to score off me," Steitz said.

Jared Davis – who sent the fourth-seeded Matadors (33-16) to the Game 1 victory with a leadoff home run in the eighth – began Friday's game with a single. Davis wound up being stranded at third.

Steitz issued walks to Tyler Leroy in the second and Robert Miranda in the fourth. He gave up a two-out single to Fausto Sanchez in the fifth, then picked off Sanchez.

Wesley Estrella was stranded at third base in fourth after reaching on a fielder's choice, stealing second and continuing to third on a throwing error.

Josh Aribal pitched the ninth to record his eighth save. Aribal (0.86 ERA) issued a walk to pinch hitter Marcus Graham leading off, then struck out two of the next three batters.

Aribal has made 14 appearances this season and allowed just one hit in 21 innings.

Marte went the distance for the Matadors, giving up five hits and two walks while striking out three.

Luke Thiele had a two-out single in the first, Mario Bejarano singled with one out in the fourth and Webb led off the sixth with a single for CAC.

The Vaqueros stranded three runners in scoring position – at second base in the first, sixth and eighth innings.

Third-seeded Pima (43-15) advanced to the Region 1 title series with a pair of 5-4 wins over second-seeded South Mountain.