Catalina Foothills beat Payson 8-0 to win the Division III title
Pueblo beat Camp Verde 5-0 to win Division IV softball championship.
Division II Boys Volleyball
Southern Arizona baseball and softball playyoffs
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.
DIVISION II SOFTBALL PREVIEW
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.
D-II BASEBALL PLAYOFFS: Ironwood Ridge advances with 5-3 win over MTN VIEW
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
1953 articles by Andy Morales
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