Tigers stay hot, advance to Semi's at the 2025 Chris Moon Memorial

2025 Marana Tigers advance to semifinals after a 12-2 win over the Rio Rico Hawks

Heading into the 5th inning the Tigers again found themselves down, after a rocky first inning in which Rio Rico scored two runs, however, the pitching and defense held them scoreless. Down two runs, Connor Ellis and Jude Luckow worked back to back walks to begin the 5th inning. Wyatt Meza then came to the plate and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. Up next? Yesterday's hero, Adriel Ramirez. Adriel took a 1-1 pitch deep to right field for a 3-run shot, his 2nd home run in as many days. This home run gave Marana the lead by a score of 3 to 2.

This was all the Tigers needed to get going, the homerun provided a momentum boost as they then poured on nine more runs over the next two innings to beat Rio Rico by a score of 12 to 2.

In the 6th inning, Hadyn Radosevich led off with a walk, Brandon Collings then laid down a sacrifice bunt, but the pitcher slipped and allowed Brandon to reach safely. A new pitcher for Rio Rico came in and immediately walked Preston Robbins. With the bases loaded Connor Ellis hit a 2-RBI single, Jude Luckow followed up and hit a 2-RBI single and then Adriel came up again and hit a 2-RBI triple and the rout was on.

In the following inning Wyatt Meza was robbed of extra bases, but the robbery came at a cost as it scored two on the sacrifice fly when Preston Robbins came home from third and Connor Ellis scored all the way from 2nd base. Unfortunately for Rio Rico, the spectacular catch also knocked out their centerfielder with an injury.

Luckow came in to pitch the 7th and record the final three outs to seal the Tiger victory, propelling them to three straight wins and into the semifinals of the 2025 Chris Moon Memorial Tournament.