One week to go.
In exactly seven days (May 14 at 7:30 p.m.) the Division I (and Division II) softball state champions will be crowned at ASU’s Farrington Stadium (a fine place to hold a couple championship games). For two schools, the dream of playing inside a college stadium for 90 percent of softball players will be realized. For the fortunate few, it could be an appetizer for what they’ll be lucky enough to experience at the college level.
A few different paths will diverge to reach next Monday. One school only …

Before we take a look at the Division I softball state tournament matchups on Thursday  night – and there are a couple doozies – best of luck to Valley Christian, Scottsdale Christian and Tempe Prep as those schools begin the Division IV state tournament journey on Wednesday afternoon.
Unfortunately it’s single elimination format and the brackets don’t yield favorable matchups (especially in Friday’s possible second round), but nothing spells unpredictability like smaller-school state tournaments.  Good luck.
Farewell to Division II, as the three East Valley representatives Saguaro, Queen Creek and Notre Dame …

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 …

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 …

It’s a big weekend for boys volleyball tournaments as the teams rev up for the final few weeks of the season. The Brophy Invitational is the most high-profile, with expected contenders like Gilbert, Corona del Sol, Brophy, Highland and others participating. The Red Mountain Lion’s Den Invitational features defending champion Mountain View, among others.
Here are the tournament details:
Brophy Invitational
When: Friday (begins at noon); Saturday (begins at 9 a.m.); Championship match at 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Brophy College  Preparatory (4701 North Central Ave., Phoenix)
Teams: Gilbert, Boulder Creek, Salpointe, Desert Vista, Corona del …

In the midst of the April softball power point race with two weeks of games left, let’s get to it:
(All games at 4 p.m. unless noted. All records are power point games only as of Monday afternoon):
Chandler at Basha (Tuesday):  The Wolves (9-2) continue to be one of the nicer stories in EV softball this season, but one of those losses came big against Basha in early March (a 12-2 defeat) and the Bears, despite losing to big to Gilbert recently, are playing well. Are the Wolves a better team?  …

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 …

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 softball schedule is a little more muddled and unpredictable this week with a few tournaments going on (namely the Marcos de Niza-McClintock Spring Break tourney), but here’s a smattering of (mostly) power point games worth watching around the East Valley this week.
(All records are power point games as of Monday):
Tuesday
Gilbert vs. Desert Ridge (10 a.m. at Marcos de Niza H.S.):  Desert Ridge got off to a strong start in the Red Mountain tournament early this season, then lost to Red Mountain, but beat Mountain View in PP games. A …