No. 5 Yuma Catholic beat No. 4 Pusch Ridge 4-3 Saturday afternoon to advance to the 3A semifinal round where the Shamrocks will face No. 1 Valley Christian in a best-of-three series starting on Tuesday, May 9 at the Goodyear Baseball Complex. On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 Northwest Christian will face No. 6 River Valley. Northwest Christian won the 3A state championship last spring

Yuma Catholic took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on a one-out single from Ivan Guzman and back-to-back hits from Joey Carey and Andres Ortiz with two outs to score Guzman. The Lions got the run back in the bottom half of the inning on a double from Noah Secrest and a single from Colin Sobecki to move Secrest to third with one out. Mickey Fox picked up a strikeout to put two outs on the board but Secrest took home on a balk to make it 1-1.

The Shamrocks took the lead again in the top of the third after Erik Topete drew a leadoff walk, stole second and Daniel Ruiz singled him in to go up 2-1. Nomar Topete reached on an error to move the lead runner to third where Fox sacrificed him home for a 3-1 lead. The Lions worked two on with one out in the bottom of the third on a single from Bubba Mustain and a double from Andres Castro but a line drive double play erased the threat.

The Lions cut into the lead in the bottom of the fifth after Peyton Carson knocked in Mustain and the team tied the game up at 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth with Mike Chop scoring Secrest on a ground out. Yuma Catholic saw life in the top of the seventh on a double from Nomar Topete with two outs where he would score on an error two batters later for a 4-3 lead. The Lions went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

Fox collected seven strikeouts for Yuma Catholic and Hiram Silva pitched the last inning for the win. Chop and Castro saw pitching action for the Lions. Secrest went 2-3.

Mike Chop. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)