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 …

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 …

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 …

Saturday’s Scottsdale Invitational baseball tournament games have been moved from Arizona State’s Packard Stadium back to the local high schools.
Desert Mountain will host Desert Ridge in the championship game at 10 a.m.
Gilbert will play at Saguaro at 11 a.m. in the third place game.
Chaparral will host Notre Dame at noon in the fifth place game.
All times and locations are according to the team websites. The games are not going to be played at ASU because there will be parking lot renovations going on at that time outside the stadium, Desert …

It may not be a sanctioned event in Arizona high school track and field, but Notre Dame’s Michael Foley set a new state record.
He set a new standard with a throw of 210 feet, 2 inches at the Grand Canyon State Games at Arizona State last Saturday. The previous mark was 202 feet, 11 inches in 1998.
Foley will compete at Duke University next fall.