No. 3 Canyon del Oro had to battle to get past No. 11 ALA-Queen Creek 10-6 in Round 2 of the 4A playoffs but a win means survival at this stage and the Dorados advance to Round 3 where the team will play No. 2 Estrella Foothills at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Wednesday. The Patriots will travel to play at No. 7 Deer Valley in an elimination game on the same night. The game times have yet to be determined.

Jake Manos (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

ALA-Queen Creek (17-7) leadoff batter Jake Manos had the hot bat for the Patriots, going 3 for 4 with a home run, two doubles and three RBI. Manos took the third pitch he saw out of the park and the Patriots led 1-0 early. The Dorados (23-6) came right back and scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning after the team worked the bases loaded with no outs and Grant Young and Tarrell Reid drew back-to-back walks to put the Dorados up 2-1. Peyton Carson picked up an RBI on a double play for the 3-1 lead.

That lead didn’t last with the Patriots coming right back to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the second only to have the Dorados tie the game back up 4-4. ALA-Queen Creek scored a run in the third and another run the fourth to go up 6-4 but the Dorados battled again to tie it up 6-6 in the bottom of the fourth.

The Patriots were limited to one runner in each of the last three innings but the Dorados pulled away with three runs in the fifth and another in the sixth for the 10-6 win. Michael Chop got the start for the Dorados, Regen Mazura took over in the third and Reid took the ball in the seventh. Chris Humphreys went 3-3 with a double and two RBI, Ernie Alvarez went 3-3 with two RBI and Michael Jones had a double and two RBI for Canyon del Oro.

Xander McRae took the mound for the Patriots and he threw 4.1 innings. Seth Nielson and Keegan Palmer also saw some action. As mentioned before, Manos was almost unstoppable at the plate and Nielsen went 3-4 with a double and an RBI.

ALA-Queen Creek upset No. 6 Mica Mountain 13-3 in the first round to set up the game at Canyon del Oro.