Pusch Ridge beat Tanque Verde 2-0 Monday night at home to claim the 3A South Region championship and the automatic playoff berth that comes with the title. The Lions are now 11-4 in power-ranking games and 6-0 in region play. By the rules of the 3A Conference, Sabino (9-7, 6-1) will claim the second automatic playoff spot from the South Region for taking second place.

Tanque Verde is now 9-7 overall and 5-3 in region play the Hawks are looking to host a Conference Play-In game slated for April 26 but the team still has a couple of regular season games left including a game against Palo Verde (5-11, 1-5) on Thursday and a game at 4A Conference opponent Sahuaro (9-6) on Saturday afternoon.

Pusch Ridge entered the game ranked No. 6 in the 3A Conference and the next set of AIA rankings are set to be released on Tuesday.

Tanque Verde junior pitcher Chase North picked up 12 strikeouts in the loss while only giving up three hits and one earned run but that small window was all the Lions needed Monday night. Bubba Mustain opened up the bottom of the third inning with a triple and he scored on a ground out RBI from Peyton Carson one out later. The insurance run came in the fourth after Noah Secrest earned a leadoff walk and then advanced to second and third on an error. Colin Sobecki followed that up with a sacrifice fly to score Secrest for the 2-0 lead.

On the other side, Noah Miller was also dominant on the mound for Pusch Ridge with 10 strikeouts and one hit given up. Payson Lee singled in the top of the third to put two on after Matt Greiner reached on a hit-by-pitch but Miller closed the door with one of his strikeouts.

Pusch Ridge will play San Miguel (0-14, 0-6) at the Kino Sports Complex on Thursday and the Lions will host Yuma Catholic (12-2, 9-0) to end the regular season on Friday night.

Chase North. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)