Southern Arizona Baseball/Softball playoff notes
Sahuaro is a lock to make the Division II state tournament but the Cougars would like to go in as a higher seed and maybe even host a match or two. Ranked No. 7 heading into their match against No. 18 Tucson on Friday, the Cougars knew a loss would make that almost impossible.
Cienega defeated Rincon/University 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 21-25, 25-17) to capture the Division II, Section I title on Thursday night. With the win, the Bobcats joined the other section champions from D-II: Ironwood won Section II, Seton Catholic won Section III, Mesquite won Section IV and Marana Mountain View won Section V.
There was only one upset in the first round of the Boy’s Division II state tournament with No. 12 Ironwood taking out No. 5 Cibola 5-1. All the other matches played out according to seed, setting up a highly contested quarterfinal round on Tuesday, May 3.
Already up 1-0 on top-ranked Ironwood Ridge in the bottom of the first, Alexis Kaiser stepped up to the plate in what could only be described as another huge at bat between the two rivals and delivered on a bases-clearing double to give No. 2 Canyon del Oro a 4-0 lead. It was a lead the Dorados would never give up and CDO went on to defeat the Nighthawks 5-3.
Canyon del Oro scored four runs in the bottom of the first to help pace the Dorados to an 11-5 victory over Catalina Foothills at home on senior night. The win was an important one for Canyon del Oro (20-7) because it kept the Dorados close to a top seed in the Division II state playoffs.
Mountain View defeated Catalina Foothills 3-1 (25-23, 25-16, 15-25, 25-13) Thursday night to capture the first section title in school history. The victory gave the Mountain Lions a 19-6 record and a 13-1 mark in power-ranking games. More importantly, Mountain View is undefeated in section play (8-0) with huge program wins over powers such as Salpointe and Ironwood Ridge in the mix.
The first round of the singles and doubles competition for all three divisions begins this Friday, April 22, at various sites in the Phoenix area. Here are the top seeds from Southern Arizona for each division plus some notes:
Salpointe (21-4 overall, 13-1 in power-ranking games) sent 11 men to the plate in the first inning to take an early 6-0 lead on Sunnyside (16-8, 11-4) but the Blue Devils responded with two in the bottom half of the inning and three more down the stretch to make the game close but the Lancers held on for a 6-5 victory.
The first path to the post season runs through the section races and this is how the races from Southern Arizona look right now. All records are section records.
Pueblo beat Thatcher 6-2 on Friday to remain on top of the Division IV AIA/MaxPreps rankings. The Warriors (18-5 overall and 12-2 in rankings games) are experiencing one of the best seasons ever for the program, rivaled only by the 25-2 squad that won the 4A championship in 1990.
Yazzie has been the head cross country and track coach at Pusch Ridge since 2005 and an art teacher at the school for a couple of years before that. But he is heading home now, back to New Mexico, to teach art and coach with his daughter Autumn Newell at the Rehoboth Christian School just outside of Gallup.
Abby Miller spent a lot of her childhood trying out different sports and even gave softball a go, like her older sister University of Arizona outfielder Merrilee Miller. The Ironwood Ridge senior also has a golf gene in her family thanks to an uncle who played at East Carolina so she gave that a try.
These are the current stat leaders for baseball with just about two weeks left in the regular season. These lists fluctuate daily depending on updated stats. Although I have only included the top three for each category, one name that will come out high on the strikeout list at the end of the season will be Santa Rita junior pitcher Rickey Borquez.
Spring signing period: Southern Arizona list
BOYS VOLLEYBALL: CDO Hitmen Invitational brackets set
We are about five weeks away from the Division III state golf championship to be played May 13-14 at the Antelope Hills Golf Course in Prescott. There are seven sections in D-III and each section winner will earn an automatic berth to the playoffs while eight more teams will earn an at-large berth based on their iWanamaker rankings.
Washington won the state championship last spring with a distance of only 172-feet-8 inches. I wrote "only" because he set a state-record 202 feet at the Casa Grande Kiwanis Invitational on Friday, April 1.
It's been five years since Canyon del Oro has gotten the best of Ironwood Ridge. Those five years, and the 11 losses in a row that came with it, were almost forgotten Tuesday night when the Dorados came out on top 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-22) in an emotionally packed match. Almost forgotten, but not quite. This is a rivalry after all - at least it is now.
Canyon del Oro defeated Sunnyside 6-4 in an important Division II match Friday between two teams currently ranked in the Top 10. CDO (17-1-1 overall and 9-1 in power-ranking games) is ranked second in the state as of Friday morning and Sunnyside (12-10, 5-3) came in ranked eighth.
San Miguel gave up an early lead but the Vipers slowly fought back to defeat Academy of Tucson 14-10 on Thursday. The Vipers improved to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in Division V, Section II while Academy of Tucson dropped to 9-4 and 0-1.
The Catalina Trojans woke up this morning and found themselves ranked third in the first Division IV AIA/MaxPreps power-rankings of the season. It's an incredible turnaround from a program that has only won 33 games since winning a state championship in 2011.
Salpointe defeated Cienega 5-1 Tuesday in a rematch of the Division II state championship game last year where the Bobcats prevailed 9-2. The Lancers (13-1 overall, 8-1 in power-ranking games) have reloaded despite the loss of seven seniors while Cienega (9-9, 3-3) is still trying to find an identity.
Bishop Gorman defeated Canyon del Oro 9-0 in the championship game of the Chris Moon Memorial Classic on Friday afternoon at Cherry Field. It was a game that featured the defending Nevada Division I state champions against the defending Arizona D-II state champions.
A rivalry in name only, Ironwood Ridge has grown accustomed to beating Canyon del Oro during singles play but the Dorados forced the Nighthawks to doubles where the Nighthawks ultimately pulled out a slim 5-4 win on Thursday.
2044 articles by Andy Morales
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