Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge junior Josh Darang pitched his way out of a couple of jams and held No. 19 Phoenix Arcadia (20-11) scoreless in the first round of the Division II baseball playoffs Saturday afternoon.

Darang improved his record to 6-1 on the year while the No. 14 Nighthawks picked up their 21st of the season (21-8) thanks to their 3-0 win over the Titans.

The Nighthawks scored in the first inning off of a couple of doubles. Senior outfielder Matthew Baker doubled to left and then junior Jake Engel doubled him home one out later.

Ironwood Ridge would score again in the bottom of the second on a couple of costly errors. Junior Christian Pearcy was hit-by-pitch and then moved to second on an errant throw to the outfield on a pickoff attempt.

Sophomore Freddy Ortega drove a ball to the left side where it was mishandled, allowing Pearcy to score. Finally, Senior catcher Andrew Brooks hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth.

Darang scattered six hits but he found himself in trouble in the top of the second after he issued a walk to sophomore pitcher Matt Schroer and a hit to senior outfielder Brian Cunningham to start things off.

"I told my stuff to not get nervous and pull myself together," Darang said. "I had to be calm and not freak out."

Darang went on and struck out the next three batters to end that threat. A double-play in the fourth turned out to be a huge factor in the game because senior Josh Arndt delivered on a double to the fence after the two outs were recorded.

That defensive play was part of several outs recorded by Ortega on the day.

"Ortega played like a senior today," said head coach Dennis Toia. "And Darang pitched his you-know-what off. We have a 'next man up' mentality and we have to do it again.

Darang had another jam in the sixth but picked up a strike to leave two Arcadia runners on base. It was the last chance for the Titans.

Schroer (6-4) got the start for Arcadia and sophomore Max Siegel (2-2) finished the game. Siegel loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth but picked up an infield fly and a strikeout to end any threat there.

Arndt and senior Tony Sarno went 2-3 to lead Arcadia. Jared McKemy went 2-3 with a double for Ironwood Ridge.

Ironwood Ridge will travel a few miles to face No. 3 Oro Valley Canyon del Oro on Tuesday in the second round of the playoffs.

Canyon del Oro is 2-0 against Ironwood Ridge but that includes an eight inning win, part of several late-season close losses suffered by the Nighthawks.

"As long as everybody's healthy and we get some timely hits we can win," Toia added. "We are going to treat this like any other road game and all of our road games have been close."