Tucson High held on the defeat Catalina Foothills 6-4 Friday night on the road thanks to five runs in the top of third inning and strong pitching down the stretch. Ranked No. 8 in the 6A Conference coming in, the Badgers improved to 13-5 overall and 8-2 in power-ranking games and the Falcons fell to 3-5 in ranking games.

Catalina Foothills is ranked No. 17 in the 5A Conference and this was the last out-of-conference game for the Falcons with 10 games remaining on the schedule over the next three weeks. Ruben Villaescusa picked up two RBI doubles in the game to lead Tucson and the first came in the top of the first inning to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead but a single from Troy Sanders and an RBI single from Alex Figueroa tied the game up 1-1.

The Badgers scored three earned runs in the top of the third and two unearned to make it 6-1 and that proved to be enough to for the win. Gennaro Brito led off with a single and then Ruben Castro walked to put two on. Isaac Ramirez sacrificed them both over and then Brito scored on a wild pitch. Mario Bejarano came up with an RBI double and then Villaescusa recorded his second RBI double to make it 4-1.

Maximiliano Leyva walked and then an error on a pickoff attempt put the two runners in scoring position. An infield error scored a run and then Jaden Leon knocked in the sixth run. Figueroa took over for Anthony Diaz and he held the rest of the way with only two hits allowed.

Sebastian Contreras gave up a double to Ganon Dwyer in the second inning and an infield hit in the fourth but a leadoff bunt from Quinn Pinckney put the Falcons in business in the bottom of the fifth. His brother Cole Pinckney followed with a walk and then Sanders beat out an infield grounder to load the bases with no outs. An error on a pickoff attempt brought one run in and Figueroa collected his second RBI on a groundout to make it 6-3.

Cole Pinckney came up with a double in the bottom of the seventh to keep the Falcons alive and he would eventually score on a passed ball to make it 6-4 but Bejarano picked up the save for Tucson.

Tucson travels to play No. 6 Queen Creek on Tuesday (7-2) and Catalina Foothills will host Flowing Wells (3-5) on the same night.

Alex Figueroa. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)