VarsityXtra

Was ASU’s decision to cut three Olympic sports (men’s swimming, wrestling and men’s tennis) on Tuesday a necessary or unnecessary evil?

You tell us.

But whatever side you choose, it was painful to be around ASU. The vibe around the athletic department was worse than a funeral, and the loss goes beyond Tempe. It cuts into the high school landscape as well.

Wrestling isn’t what it once was - only two Pac-10 schools still have programs - and the same can be said for tennis and (to a less severe degree) swimming.

But whether local high schoolers were good enough and interested in staying here and going to ASU, they at least had the option to stay close to home, compete nationally and receive an education through their sport.

Now, the area’s grapplers, swimmers and volleyers must decide whether to pursue their  sports’ passions on a national level.  If the answer is “yes,” they better be ready to move elsewhere. 

Today, the sports vs. home options went from “and,” to, “or.”

Here we go.  Tonight’s 5A Division I softball championship between Chandler Basha (31-4) and Tempe Corona del Sol (28-7) is going to be sweet.

First pitch is 8:07 p.m. at Rose Mofford Softball Complex (9833 N. 25th Ave, Phoenix) and airing on Cox Communications ch. 7.

Yes, it’s annoying these two schools have already played each other three times, but both teams appear to have evolved since their last meeting which determined the Central Region champion (Basha won 2-1).  Yes, coaches Scott Hoffmeyer and Jeep Ray are good friends, as are several players from each team.

(If experience makes any difference - and I don’t think it will tonight - Corona del Sol won the state championship in 2003 and was runner-up to Mesa Red Mountain in 2006 (a few current Aztecs were on the ‘06 team).

Plus it’s No. 1 vs. No. 2.   Does this mean the new version of the Power Rankings system worked?  You tell us.

Here’s tonight’s (not-so) quick scouting report:

Pitching:  Basha junior Samantha Parlich doesn’t have the physical stature of a Dallas Escobedo, but she can throw fire with the best of them. She topped 250 strikeouts for the second consecutive year, and outdueled Escobedo and Phoenix St. Mary’s to get here in the do-or-die semifinal on Wednesday.  Parlich’s beaten Corona twice this season (she didn’t pitch in Corona’s 14-6 victory), most recently the 2-1 game which decided the region championship.  The Aztecs rely on Jamie Pollak and Marina Carroll, who’ve shared time in the circle. Both have been effective, but both rely on precise location and their defense behind them.  They’re not going to strike out 10-15 hitters per game the way Parlich can.

Advantage:  Basha. 

Hitting:  This is where Corona has been unlike any other tournament team. The Aztecs already had a good core of hitters in Ashley Hansen, Mary Spiel, Vanessa Alvarez and Laura Bohning.  In the tournament, however, everyone has been a difficult out the past couple weeks.  Sierra Vista Buena has a top pitcher in Meghan McIntosh.  So, too, did Scottsdale Desert Mountain in Whitney Phillips, and Phoenix Xavier in Stephanie Janes.  But the Aztecs were better, pounding (and blooping) hit after hit. They’ve scored 39 runs in four tournament games, and watching Hansen and Spiel hit and run are more than worth the price of admission.

Basha is no slouch either. They scored twice off Escobedo in the first semifinal game, then put the ball in play well enough to score twice again in the second game. They’ll have plenty of chances to do the same against Corona’s pitching.

Advantage:  Corona del Sol 

Defense:  By their own admission, the Aztecs were inconsistent defensively throughout the regular season.  At times they’ve been shaky in the postseason, but haven’t been damaged by their miscues, in-part because they’ve hit the ball so well.  They can’t rely on that in one game against Parlich, but no one needs to tell them to be ready. There will be plenty of plays to make tonight.

Basha is underrated defensively. Parlich is a strikeout pitcher, but the Bears made four terrific defensive plays in beating Mesa Red Mountain, and were spot-on when they had to be against St Mary’s. Both of these teams’ strengths are up the middle.

Advantage:  Even.

Who’s winning? Why?

Scottsdale Horizon baseball coach Eric Kibler isn’t enjoying this season as much as last year due to some off the field problems he’s had to deal with involving some of his players.

At different times this year, Kibler has suspended and tossed players off the team. And guess what?

The Huskies are playing for yet another state title Saturday despite the distraction, upheaval and toll the disciplining takes on teammates, Kibler himself and his staff.

Maintaining discipline at all costs and still playing for a state title. That’s what I call a top-notch program.

This month’s hottest hitter in Class 5A saw his terrific career end in sad fashion on Thursday.

Desert Mountain got whooped by Hamilton in the state semifinals, and though the Wolves showed something by coming back to load the bases and scratch across a run (it probably should have been more) after Hamilton scored 15 in the previous inning, it gave Lars Liguori one more at-bat, and he reached base.

Since the state tournament started, Liguori reached base 17 times in 25 plate appearances, spanning six games.

He had two hits in an otherwise miserable Thursday for the Wolves and reached base all five times in a win against Mesa Mountain View.

He complimented his extra-base power with walks and an ability to hit to all fields. All it took was a mechanical adjustment involving his weight shift two weeks ago.

“Holy cow, he was on fire,” Wolves coach Bryan Rice said. “You could see how he was hitting the ball again. He was the toughest out there was.”

Good luck to Gilbert Mesquite against Chandler Hamilton in the 5A-I baseball state championship on Saturday night. You’re going to need it.

The Huskies’ 15-2 victory against Scottsdale Desert Mountain on Thursday afternoon was typical late-season Hamilton: Spend a couple innings watching and the rest of the game feasting.

Those 15 runs all came in the fourth inning. Hamilton sent 19 hitters to the plate, had 12 hits in the inning, and had leadoff hitter Sammy Vandenheuvel bat three times.

It was enough offense to make Huskies football coach Steve Belles blush in the bleachers, and Desert Mountain feel ill, and if you think Desert Mountain is some cupcake, then good luck explaining how they could have been a 24-win team and one of four teams left in 5A Division I.

Nobody is playing like the Huskies have for the past four weeks, but it goes back further. Hamilton played one team with a losing record this season and lost six games by two runs or fewer.

They’ve scored at least 10 runs in every tournament game and outscored Mesquite 28-6 in the three previous meetings (although the Huskies haven’t seen the Wildcats ace).

Earlier this tournament, when Hamilton beat North Canyon and Mesquite toppled Mesa Red Mountain, Wildcats coach Jeff Holland told Hamilton coach Mike Woods a premonition these two teams would see each other on one more time on a Saturday.

It’s up to 10 consecutive wins for Hamilton, so who they’ve faced lately hasn’t mattered.

“We’re rolling,” Woods said, “but we’ve got one more to go.”

It should be a fun two days as the 4A-I baseball semifinals and championship game wrap up Friday and Saturday.

Three of the top four seeds are still alive, including No. 1 Scottsdale Chaparral. The Firebirds run-ruled Prescott on Tuesday and will face off with No. 4 seed Glendale Cactus, who used a run-rule game of its own to make the semifinals.

The other side of the bracket has No. 3 Glendale Sandra Day O’Connor facing off with No. 7 Tucson Catalina Foothills. Catalina Foothills is the lowest seed, but many expected them to be in the state championship chase. The Falcons knocked off a very good Tucson Sabino team in the quarterfinals.

Baseball is an unpredictable sport,  but my gut tells me Chaparral and Catalina Foothills will be playing Saturday for the state title.

We’re down to the Final Four in 5A-I softball: The No. 1 seed (Basha), No. 2 (Corona del Sol), No. 5 (St. Mary’s) and No. 6 (Xavier).

Anyone surprised by who’s still standing?

It’s back to Rose Mofford Softball Complex on Wednesday for the 5 p.m. semifinal matchups, but if you can’t wait until then, Horizon and Pinnacle are playing a couple tough matchups (Deer Valley and Sunnyside, respectively) tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Moff.

Don’t forget: Basha and Corona del Sol went through the winner’s bracket (Xavier and St. Mary’s already lost once in the tournament), so if the Bears or Aztecs lose their first game, the same two teams play one more sudden-death game immediately following game 1.

Here’s a quick glance into the future:

St. Mary’s vs. Basha:  Besides the big-time pitcher’s duel (Dallas Escobedo and Samantha Parlich), the best part of this matchup is, for once in a blue moon, these two teams haven’t faced each other this season. The Knights are defending 5A-I champions and returned almost everyone (the Knights added a couple freshmen who’ve made a difference in this tournament at the bottom of the lineup). The Bears reached the semifinals last year but lost twice to Buena, and returned almost everyone.

The big question:  Can Basha score two runs? Three would be gravy, but Escobedo has allowed two runs in 33 IP this postseason. The Bears got a pair of runs in one inning against Red Mountain in the quarterfinal game, and it was enough for Parlich and the defense, but the Bears haven’t seen a pitcher with Escobedo’s stuff.

Xavier vs. Corona del Sol:  At least these two teams have only met once this season, a 5-0 win by Xavier in late February. I don’t think that previous meeting matters much, especially given how well Xavier’s played in the last week and how good Corona del Sol is hitting in this tournament. Stephanie Janes has been terrific, and she’s more of a “lights-out” pitcher than Corona’s Jamie Pollak and Marina Caroll. They each share the most recent common opponent in Buena. The Aztecs outslugged Buena on Saturday. The Gators completely shut down the Colts’ sluggers on Monday.

The big question: Can Janes keep throwing her changeup for strikes? If so, as she did against Buena, her fastball, riseball and changeup are a dominating trio. Both teams’ defenses will be on the spot, as Corona doesn’t strike out often and the Gators should put balls in play on the Aztecs. If Janes can do it again from the circle, the Gators have a chance to score runs.

And, yes, Corona coach Jeep Ray (and a couple players) saw Xavier’s fake-overthrow trick-play attempt early in Monday’s game.

That’s one amateur’s view. Who do you think will win? Why?

Before looking ahead to Wednesday’s semifinal matchups - and they are dandies - this bears repeating:

It is completely unacceptable and nothing short of mind-boggling for the AIA to schedule Rose Mofford softball tournament games this way.

After the first week of the tournament, average game times generally approach two hours, plus about 20 minutes in between to allow for warmups and fielding practice, so for games to be scheduled 90 minutes apart from one another is assanine.

Monday night’s Xavier-Buena game was “scheduled” for 7:30 (based on the 90 minute theory between games), which means the game would have taken an hour, then 20-30 minutes for the next teams’ warmups.

How many one-hour state tournament games have been played in the past five years?

The late afternoon games went their normal 100-120 minutes, so the 5A-I quarterfinals began at 8:45 p.m. and ended at 10:45.  That means Buena, which is from Sierra Vista, didn’t arrive home from the bus ride until 2 or 3 a.m.

It’s confoundingly idiotic, and so simple to fix - start games earlier and leave about 2-2 1/2 hours between game times - it’s exhausting and difficult coming up with excuses.

At this point in the 4A and 5A tournaments, there are so few games and teams left to play they can use fields simultaneously, which should cut down on possible delays.

Way too late now. We’ve already seen an unbelievably poor disservice handed to players, fans and media. We’re just not sure why.

Here are a few bits of softball state tournament randomness while peering into what’s to come with tonight’s St. Mary’s-Red Mountain and Xavier-Buena winners filling the final two state semifinals spots:

It took a fifth meeting with Glendale Mountain Ridge to get here, but after the Gators defeated Mesa last week, Xavier coach Bobby Pena was fielding questions about the chance to face Buena again. The Gators lost 2-0 to the Colts in the second round of the tournament which dropped them into the loser’s bracket.

Gators senior Stephanie Janes has been as good a pitcher as anyone not named Escobedo in the past week. The key will be whether Xavier can string hits together, which they didn’t do the first time. Meghan McIntosh is a top 5 pitcher in the state, but the Colts were battered around by Corona’s bats. With Janes, Xavier won’t  need to put up eight runs the way the Aztecs did, but the Gators will have to score, because Buena needed seven minutes to erase a 4-0 deficit against Corona.

On the other side, Red Mountain had a couple chances for the big hit early against Basha’s Samantha Parlich and couldn’t get one. It’s even more paramount against Escobedo. But they already know this, having dropped a pair of 2-1 decisions against St. Mary’s earlier this season. The Lions got very good pitching from Mel Willadsen (and Jess Donovan) and are very good defensively, but one run won’t be enough tonight.

Scottsdale Horizon and Phoenix Pinnacle play Tuesday, and the Huskies are in a pickle. Blaize Gatti’s group is trying to get into the 5A-II semifinals for the second consecutive year, except the Huskies have to play Deer Valley, who’s already beaten Horizon twice this year. The Huskies are 0-fer against Deer Valley, Ironwood Ridge and Sunrise Mountain this year, three teams which happen to still be alive.

Leftover randomness from another state tournament softball weekend:

It was refreshing to see an outcome like the Tempe Corona del Sol slugfest with Sierra Vista Buena (who could meet again later this week). This time of year is all about pitching and defense, and since most teams who reach this far have dominating pitching, it was fun to watch offenses have their day (unless you were those pitchers).

Forget the final game against Phoenix St. Mary’s, in which Gilbert had no chance against Dallas Escobedo and Phoenix St. Mary’s. How about the job done by first-year coach Shaundra Gutierrez? The Tigers were a double-digit seed in the tournament the past two years, and couldn’t go anywhere. Their play was scatter-brained early in the season (as many teams are) but won five consecutive Fiesta Region games to win the region title. After losing the first tourney game to Gilbert Highland (barely), could have gone the ways of predecessing teams, but they rode freshman pitcher Michelle Duncan into the quarterfinals. Coach of the year candidate? Absolutely.

Speaking of St. Mary’s, the Knights are getting more dangerous by the hour. Not only has Escobedo been lights out in the tournament, but the team is hitting well enough around her to beat anyone. They were admittedly out of sorts for a time this season when Escobedo was nursing her injured hand and as St. Mary’s dealt with the death of a JV softball player - Phoenix Xavier went through the same tragedy - but not anymore.

There were four diving catches in the Chandler Basha-Mesa Red Mountain game. Bri Benjamin’s vault at second base to take away a leadoff hit might have saved the game for the Bears in the fifth inning.

Two players I’d pay to watch take batting practice: Ashley Hansen (Corona) and Caitlin Bayley (Xavier).