Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge baseball coach Dennis Toia earned his 100th career victory Monday night with a 9-2 win over Tucson Pueblo at home. The Nighthawks (15-3 overall, 3-0 in section) will now be entering a difficult stretch in their schedule.

Pueblo (3-5-2, 1-2) held tough with Ironwood Ridge behind the arm of Frank Gomez until the bottom of the fourth when the game started to slowly slip away.

Gomez collected seven strikeouts and only gave up five hits but Nighthawk pitcher Josh Darang wouldn't allow the Warriors to provide any offense to support the effort put forth by Gomez.

Pueblo scored first after Jesse Vasquez reached on a fielder's choice in the top of the second inning and then moved over to third on a two-out single from Andrew Lopez. A balk brought Vasquez in.

The Warriors scored again in the top of the sixth when Jesus Valenzuela scored on a throwing error after Caiden Coates singled.

Ironwood Ridge tied it up in the bottom of the second on an error that allowed Gavin Ortiz to score. Adam Mays double home Ortiz in the bottom of the fourth and Jared McKemy would pick up an RBI later in the inning to give Ironwood Ridge a 3-1 lead.

Ortiz connected on a two-RBI triple in the fifth and Jake Engel hit a bases-clearing triple in the sixth to bring in three more runs. Engel would also score after an error for the final 9-2 margin.

Pueblo loaded the bases with one out in the top of the seventh but Christian Pearcy came in and collected two strikeouts to end the game.  Also making an appearance for Pueblo was Marco Prieto.

Lopez went 3-3 for Pueblo and Ortiz went 2-3 for Ironwood Ridge while Engel went 2-4.

"The wins are a result of having everything we need here," Toia said on his milestone victory.

"Great parents, players who work hard, a great administration and assistant coaches who have been with me since we started. (Doug) Kautz, (John) Sugameli and (Victor) Olivares have put in a lot of hours helping our players buy into out system. They deserve a lot of credit."

Toia is now 100-39 in his fifth season. The previous four coaches collected a combined 116-108-1 record since the program began in 2003. The Nighthawks will travel to Tucson Salpointe (14-3, 5-0) on Wednesday, April 1 for an important Division II/Section VI matchup. Salpointe coach Danny Preble has 116 career wins.

Pueblo will host Tucson Rincon (7-8, 1-1) on Tuesday.