VarsityXtra

Scottsdale Coronado may have posted the most impressive win of any team in the first round of the 4A-II baseball tournament.

The Dons won last year’s state title with an explosive offense that blistered any and all pitching in its path. This year’s Coronado offense has considerably less firepower, but the job done by the bats on Saturday would make the 2007 team proud.

The Dons touched up Flagstaff Coconino left-hander Kyle Lobstein - a possible first-round pick in June’s MLB draft - for five runs (three earned) in five innings of work, and eventually rallied for an 8-6 win. Lobstein was the best pitcher in the 4A-II tournament, but Coronado clearly wasn’t intimidated.

Next up is a matchup with No. 1 Scottsdale Notre Dame on Tuesday. Coronado beat Notre Dame in last year’s championship game.

If MVP awards were handed out at state tournaments, the frontrunner for the 5A-I baseball playoffs would have to be Chandler Hamilton catcher Jake Saylor.

Through three games, the senior is hitting .583 with two home runs, nine RBI and two doubles.

His hot streak is a continuation of his play from the regular season.

“Jake Saylor has been carrying our team for the past month,” coach Mike Woods said Saturday after Saylor went 3-for-5 with three RBI and just missed a home run at Tempe Diablo Stadium. He instead had to settle for a 410-foot double in the Huskies’ 10-8 victory over Mesa Mountain View.

“He’s just been on fire.”

When asked to explain the zone he’s been in, Saylor responded simply, “I’ve found my swing the past couple weeks.”

That’s bad news for the rest of the field.

It was a fickle issue last month at the National Federation of State High School Associations meetings last week:

Instant replay.

The NFL uses it successfully. To a lesser degree, the NBA, college basketball and college football have mostly succeeded with it.

In high school parlance, however, it was “No thanks,” as the committtee rejected an instant-replay proposal during state tournaments which came on the heels of three states having titles decided at the buzzer. 

It was a wise decision. There was no way it could be made affordable or available at every venue in every state.

Balls, strikes, outs, fair/foul balls, traveling (though we all know that’s never called), line calls and fouls are all about “objective” judgements, and they should be.

For and against are part of the game. So, too, is human error. It’s part of life in circumstances way beyond sports.

Machines shouldn’t run the high school sports world. Kids’ lives, futures or jobs aren’t at stake.

You can learn a lot in five hours and four games’ worth of softball during the 5A Division I state tournament (also known as one of the most wonderful times of the year).

For example:

There were grumblings about the chilly weather Thursday night, and if you were one of them, zip it.  Perhaps you forgot it was 105 degrees during the first weekend of the tournament last year.

How dominant was Stephanie Janes during her no-hitter against Mesa?  Senior catcher Sara Sandoval struck out three times against Janes for (unofficially) the second time in her high school career. The same Sara Sandoval who was intentionally walked four times by Desert Mountain in the first round of the tournament (and for good reason).

Speaking of the Jackrabbits, they should be proud for making the state tournament. It’s the first time in a while Mesa had a collection of true softball players, led by Sandoval and Bri Robles.

Robles, by the way, pitched the last two tournament games - including a victory against Mesa Mountain View - with a broken toe on her left foot.

And speaking of the Wolves, it was a tough way to end the season with a loss to Desert Valley Region partner Glendale Mountain Ridge. It’s hard to beat a team four times, and both Mountain Ridge coach and Xavier coach Bobby Pena were grousing about playing each other so many times. And they were the winning teams.

Perish the thought that Phoenix St. Mary’s pitcher Dallas Escobedo isn’t 100 percent because of a lingering bruise on her hand after being hit by a pitch weeks ago. Gilbert Highland didn’t want to hear about it, let alone face it.  Escobedo had 17 strikeouts in a 3-1 win.

Neither the Knights nor Hawks were particularly pleased with the umpiring following a series of wacky, hard-to-describe plays which proved to be the difference, and to Highland coach Ben Leeson’s credit, he refused to go down that road afterward. Instead, he talked about a couple miscues on defense and a couple early chances to score on Escobedo.

Does St. Mary’s really need five assistant coaches?  The Knights dugout looks like the I-10/202 stack at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday.  

Closed circuit to the AIA:  Stop scheduling games 90 minutes apart from one another, as Thursday’s 5:30 and 7 p.m. start times indicate on the brackets.  Games take two hours this time of year, plus 30 minutes or so for the next teams to warm up.  Not difficult.

Check back for more regularly during the next 10 days. There’s always something going on during tournament time.