No. 5 Cienega beat No. 12 Ironwood Ridge 8-0 in first round action of the 5A Conference state playoffs Saturday morning at home. The Bobcats will travel to play at No. 4 Willow Canyon on Tuesday, April 30 in Round 2. Willow Canyon beat No. 13 Fairfax 12-1 to set up the match with Cienega.

Ironwood Ridge (14-10) finished the regular season strong to win the Southern Region championship and Fairfax (18-6) won the Metro Region.

Cienega (20-6) won the Sonoran Region by three games and Willow Canyon (23-7) won the Northwest Region by three games also. The tournament moves into the double elimination format from here so the winner will advance to the Round 3 on May 4 and the loser will play in an elimination game on May 2.

Cienega scored a run in the bottom of the first inning on back-to-back doubles from Alli Mullen and Sophia Butt and that score held up until the Bobcats scored three more in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the fifth for the 8-0 margin. Maya Fimbres got the start for the Bobcats and she gave up one hit in 5.2 innings of work while collecting four strikeouts. Fellow sophomore Kylie Bristol finished the game out from the circle.

Andreca Garcia went 2-3 with a triple and a double and two RBI to lead the Bobcats at the plate. Valerie Rodriguez had a triple, Mullen went 2-4 with a double, Isabel Mendoza went 2-3 with two RBI and Kaetlyn Lutton had a double and an RBI.

Ironwood Ridge sophomore Teah Valencia took the circle for the Nighthawks and she threw four innings and sophomore Hayden Bores threw two innings. Joliee Romero had a double and Hailei Barney went 1-3.

Ironwood Ridge will compete in the 4A Conference next year.

Andreca Garcia. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

(Andy Morales/AZPreps365)