Junior lefthander Alex Verdugo struck out 18 batters in six innings on Tuesday, but he wasn't on the mound when Sahuaro (Tucson, Ariz.) nipped Nogales (Ariz.) 4-3 in the seventh inning of a Division II state baseball tournament elimination game.

He didn't record every out by strikeout, though. Twice he had third strikes escape the catcher and the runners reached base.

Looking at Verdugo's pitch count (over 100), coach Mark Chandler told the Arizona Republic, "We took him out freshman year. He had a no-hitter going and we took him out. All that's great and fine, but he's got a future and we want to facilitate that as much as possible."

Verdugo, whose previous high was 15 strikeouts, appeared on target to match the 4A Conference record of 21 set in 1971.

He related, "I wasn't counting them all in my head, but I kind of figured that I had a lot. I saw a lot of batters going back to the box."

Nogales scored all three of its runs in the third inning by bunching its only two hits with a walk, error and hit batsman.

Sahuaro stranded 10 runners in the first six innings - three times leaving the bases loaded - then finally won the game when No. 9 hitter Owen Sanchez hit an 0-2 pitch into center field for the decisive RBI.

Senior Marcel Renteria pitched the distance for Nogales, scattering 10 hits and striking out 10.

He said, "When I knew I was facing Verdugo, I was excited. All of Tucson talks about him ... My hat goes off to him. He shut us down completely."