Top-seeded Phoenix Greenway kept on rolling in the Division II state baseball tournament, pulling away for a 9-1 victory over No. 4 Nogales on Friday night (May 9) at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Greenway will face second-seeded Tucson Sahuaro on Thursday (May 15) at 6:30 p.m. in the next round of the winner’s bracket at Maryvale Baseball Park in west Phoenix. Sahuaro advanced earlier Friday by escaping with an 8-7 victory in nine innings over No. 3 seed Prescott Valley Bradshaw Mountain.

Nogales slips into the loser’s bracket in the double-elimination tournament on Tuesday (May 13) and will face the winner of a Saturday (May 10) game between Cave Creek Cactus Shadows and Buckeye Verrado.

Due to the length of the Sahuaro-Bradshaw Mountain game, the Greenway-Nogales contest started at 7:30 p.m., about an hour past its originally scheduled time.

As he has all season, senior Tyler Frost led Greenway, on the mound and with the bat.

The right-hander scattered seven hits, and ripped a bases-loaded double to highlight a five-run fourth inning that pushed Greenway’s lead to 6-1. Third baseman Cody Wescott also provided a key hit in the inning with a two-run home run.

In the fifth, Greenway took advantage of some struggles by the Nogales starting pitcher. Greenway got an infield hit with one out, and that was followed by four straight walks. Kona Quiggle and Cole Anderson got credit for RBIs.

Greenway could have forced an early end to the game with the 10-run rule, but Nogales reliever Julio Vega came in to retire the final two men and left the bases loaded.

The Demons scored one more time in the sixth on a two-out double by Ben Aklinski.

Greenway finished with 10 hits. Frost also drove in the team’s first run in the third on a single to right that tipped off the edge of the glove by a leaping Nogales second baseman.