No. 9 Tucson defeated No. 10 Ironwood Ridge 10-0 Saturday night to advance to the Division II state championship game scheduled for Tuesday. Jose Contreras (8-2) gave up only two hits while striking out five in the game shortened to five innings due to the run-rule.
No. 9 Tucson defeated No. 6 Canyon del Oro 8-2 Thursday night to advance to the final game of the Division II Elimination Bracket where the Badgers will take on No. 10 Ironwood Ridge. Tucson and Ironwood Ridge will play each other on Saturday night at Amphitheater High School. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
It started out as a pitching duel between Mia Trejo (11-6) and Brianna Aguilar-Beaucage (17-5) but the Division II elimination game held at Amphitheater on Wednesday night turned into a scoring fest with the Lancers coming out on top 13-7.
No. 1 Canyon del Oro fell to No. 8 Tucson 10-9 at Cherry Field in Tucson. Wendy Castro gave the Dorados a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first and Jenna Martinez knocked in Brenna Griesser in the second but the 2-0 lead would not hold up on a night when the lead changed eight times.
Tucson and Canyon del Oro are the only teams from last year’s final eight to make a repeat performance. The Dorados defeated Tucson 3-1 to claim the Division II championship last year but there are six new teams in the round of eight, hoping to claim those two final spots.
Justice Summerset passed for 5,264 yards in his career, good enough to put him in the top four in the history of Southern Arizona, but the Marana Mountain View quarterback is also a high jumper. A very good one.
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.