Round one is in the books, a Saturday filled with some drama, blowouts and a few surprises (congrats to Chandler and Desert Vista) sets up a few interesting matchups on Tuesday.
This is the last “elimination” round of the tournament, which means the winners on Tuesday advance to the final eight in Division I or Division II and will have a double-elimination format the rest of the way (until obviously the championship games).
All games at 4 p.m.:
Division I
No. 16 Perry at No. 1 Basha:  The Pumas have won 10 consecutive games …

As the “second season” begins on Saturday around the state, a few bits of randomness about these brackets.
–For the most part (and it’ll never be exact) the seedings at the top of Division I are pretty spot-on. Or, at least, there are good arguments to be made that Basha (No. 1), Red Mountain (No. 2), Xavier (No. 3), Gilbert (No. 4) and Horizon (No. 6) are worthy of their spots. Xavier might be the biggest question mark of those given the Gators’ late-season slide after dropping three of their last …

The state tournament brackets are set, so it’s time to further dissect the baseball playoffs. Here is the primer that ran in the paper on Friday. However, the seeds weren’t set before our print deadline, so for all you loyal online readers here’s a more in-depth breakdown. As I said in the outlook, the randomness of the matchups is going to play a big role in how the playoffs play out, and that looks to be the case. Here are my thoughts on what will happen in the first two …

A critical baseball game between Horizon and Desert Mountain will finish on Thursday, in time to count toward the power point standings.
The game was tied at 10 in the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday when it was called due to darkness, but that’s only a part of the story.
The Wolves rallied from a 10-1 deficit to tie the game, and had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth. A ball was hit to third, and after the base was touched for one out, Wolves …

This is it:  The last of the regular season matchups. All teams vying for playoff positions, “bubble teams” trying to get into the top-24, and jostling for one of those top 8 seeds (especially in Div. I and Div. II) have until Wednesday evening to determine whether summer vacation begins early.
The top 4 teams in each Section (based on power points) are automatic entrants, with the remaining 12 spots based solely on power points.
We’ll update the state tournament brackets as soon as they’re posted late this week.
Let’s get to it.
(All …

And then there were two. As in, two weeks of regular season action left before the softball state tournaments begin in earnest on April 28.
The playoff push begins now, because teams who wait until next week to try and make a move could easily be left on the lurch.
(All games are 4 p.m. unless otherwise noted. All records are power point games as of Monday morning):
Xavier at Basha (Tuesday):  The Gators took last week off for their (late) spring break, and are No. 1 in power points at 13-0. The …

Firmly entrenched in the power point season again, let’s cut to the chase with plenty of really good softball matchups this week (of course that’s easy to come by when it’s 3 or 4 games per week for most schools).
(All games at 4 p.m. unless noted; All records are power point as of Monday, April 2):
Red Mountain at Gilbert (Tuesday):  Probably the biggest game of the week and another preview of Div. I state tournament semifinals or even championship game the way these two schools have been playing. Gilbert won …

Desert Mountain’s junior-t0-be quarterback Kyle Allen was a standout at the Elite 11 high school combine in Dallas.
Playing at the Cowboys’ new stadium, Allen drew rave reviews from 247 Sports:  “Of all the signal callers on hand, Allen showed the most compact release throughout the day. He delivered the ball with impressive velocity on seam routes and along the sidelines. Expect the 6-foot-1 junior to be nationally recruited in the 2014 class, and become a hot prospect among college coaches in the region during the spring evaluation period.”
Allen completed 58 …

Spring Break and big-time tournaments highlighted most of the past two weeks. That’s especially true for those who played in the Desert Mountain tournament, with Mountain View beating Paradise Valley for the championship.  Practically everyone there Saturday felt their team was significantly better having gone through that week’s worth of competition.
Now, however, the party is over. With most schools dealing with three- and four-games per week this week and through the month of April, it’s back to power point contests in-full.
Here we go (all records are power point games only …

The Dylan Cozens circus involving Chaparral and Desert Mountain supposedly ended earlier this week when the Arizona Interscholastic Association ruled the baseball player was eligible at Chaparral after being removed from Desert Mountain’s team last April.
After hearing about the move from outsiders — not Chaparral — a year ago, the AIA shut him down for the 2011 season on the basis that he was removed from Desert Mountain’s baseball team for disciplinary reasons.
Under AIA bylaws, a student isn’t allowed to switch schools and immediately be eligible to play when disciplinary …