The Tempe Marcos de Niza baseball team is relying a lot this season on Rudy Jaramillo and Jacob Morales. The final game of the McClintock portion of the McClintock-Saguaro Spring Break Tournament was proof of that.
Jaramillo ripped a tiebreaking double and Morales tossed a five-hitter to cool off hot-hitting Tempe Corona del Sol, 2-1 on Thursday afternoon at Jim Merrick Field.
Marcos (9-4), which won five of six games in the tournament, rallied with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to erase a 1-0 Corona lead. Casey Maloney's run-scoring double in the fifth tied the score. Michael Kenneth's leadoff fly-ball double in the sixth was misplayed, and he scored on Jaramillo's two-out hit to the right-field corner.
"This is exactly the kind of game we needed to end the tournament," Padres coach Felipe Becerra said. "We've gotten good pitching and today timely hitting. With Corona and us in different regions now, this is the only time we get to play them this year. It was an exciting finish."
The run Morales (2-0) allowed came in the first on three Corona singles. The rest of the game belonged to him as the Aztecs (11-3), who also won five tournament games, scratched out their other two hits (one each) in the sixth and seventh. Morales had the tying run at second with two outs in the sixth and seventh, but induced a ground ball and a pop-out, respectively, to close those innings.
"(Morales) pitched a great game," Corona coach Dave Webb said. "I thought (starter) Kevin (Collinge) pitched good as well."
Collinge allowed five hits in six innings. Morales fanned five in going the distance.
