VarsityXtra

Some games to watch closely Thursday afternoon and evening, the final day of the 5A Division I and 5A Division II baseball season.

Phoenix Mountain Pointe moved into the 16th and final 5A-I spot with its win over Phoenix Desert Vista on Wednesday.  Mountain Pointe needs Phoenix North Canyon to defeat Phoenix Alhambra Thursday afternoon, however, to hang on to the 16th spot. Alhambra takes 16th with a win.

Down in Tucson Thursday night, Tucson High tangles with Tucson Ironwood Ridge. The rub in that game is  Tucson is currently No. 10 in the 5A-I power rankings and Ironwood Ridge is No. 17 in 5A-II.  Tucson needs a win to move to No. 8 and secure a first-round home game at state. Ironwood Ridge needs a win to qualify for the 5A-II state tourney. Plenty of motivation on both sides.

And don’t forget a couple of tie games finished Thursday between Gilbert High and Phoenix Pinnacle and Sierra Vista Buena and Casa Grande that could alter a playoff position or two, but not whether or not one team qualifies or another does not.

Nine weeks ago, the Gilbert high school softball began the season on a back field at Mesa Red Mountain’s Lion Country Classic tournament loaded with expectations.

It wasn’t a pretty sight when the Tigers lost 5-2 to Gilbert Mesquite.

Tigers coach Shaundra Gutierrez repeatedly referenced how far this team was from being a polished product. Every school says that, and most of the time it’s true, but it sounded odd because nearly every player from last year’s Fiesta Region title team was back.

Gutierrez was right. On Wednesday, the Tigers avenged a loss to Mesquite a couple weeks ago in the final game of the regular season to win a second consecutive Fiesta title.

At 15-3, the Tigers are almost assured a better start to this weekend’s state tournament than the No. 8 seed they earned last season. While waiting for a few other results to come in and Thursday games to play out, it’s looking like a top-5 seed is coming.

There were hiccups throughout the latter stages of the Red Mountain tournament, plus against Chandler and Chandler Hamilton of late, but the Tigers have won five straight heading into the tournament.

Bailey Blake is as good a leadoff hitter and fielder as there is in the East Valley, but there are no mashers in the lineup. Tiffanee Frampton and Alexa Redman, Alex Vela and Elysia Mesa are also solid, but there are no mashers.

Michelle Duncan and Frampton are good pitchers and their defense has been much better the last month.

The Tigers do nothing fancy, but they keep winning.

In the wake of the University Interscholastic League suspending all Texas high school athletic events and canceling some tournaments until May 11 because of the swine flu, the Arizona Interscholastic Association has issued a statement on its Web site.

The release basically says everything will remain status quo in Arizona unless an outbreak forces schools to close or several kids/coaches/staff become infected.

AIA Assistant Executive Director Chuck Schmidt said the best they can do is keep in touch with the Arizona Department of Health and deal with whatever arises on a case-by-case basis.

Let’s hope that’s nothing and we can get through May 16 - the final day of state tournaments - unscathed.

A few East Valley boys volleyball coaches grumbled this week about  the state tournament not starting until May 11 while a few schools (including Mountain Pointe, Brophy, Desert Vista and Hamilton) have matches scheduled during next week’s sudden lag time.

The annoyance stems from having to sit around next week (only able to practice) and waiting until midweek to find out who first-round opponents will be next weekend.

I wouldn’t want to sit around a week either, but since nobody does region tournaments anymore (which is a good thing), it’s a blank week waiting to be filled.

Of course, it’s definitely in the rules to schedule games next week. Furthermore, those teams that moved matches into next week did so because what’s the point of sitting around for that week getting rusty and only practicing?

If region tournaments are truly becoming extinct in volleyball, eventually they should eliminate that week in between (in this case, next week), and start and finish the state tournament a week earlier.

In the meantime, don’t whine about how others are scheduling when you had every opportunity to do the same for your school.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association sent out gentle e-mail reminders to its member schools Monday that any tie baseball or softball games  not yet resumed and finished need to be before state tournaments begin this weekend and next weekend.

In 5A that means that on three tie games will completed on Thursday: Gilbert High will visit Phoenix Pinnacle, Casa Grande travels to Sierra Vista Buena, and Surprise Valley Vista visits Avondale Westview. With a precedent being set last year to finish tie games and several schools already completing tie games from earlier this season, it was absolutely the correct, fair thing to do.

Tuesday was a three-for-all for Mesa Red Mountain. The Mountain Lions officially captured East Valley Region titles in baseball, boys volleyball and softball with wins over Mesa Mountain View, Mesa High and Mountain View, respectively. Three region titles in any season is pretty good. It just doesn’t always happen within a couple hours of each other.

It is unlikely the 100-meter dash time of Chandler Hamilton’s Ryan Milus in Friday’s Tribune Invitational will be retrieved.

Many in attendance timed him under the state record of 10.33 seconds, but the electronic timer malfunctioned, making it unofficial.

There was hope the time could be retrieved because the software company had video of the race, but meet director Thad Gates isn’t confident that will happen.

“My timing crew did talk to the software maufacturer who could not give an explanation for the malfunction,” Gates said in an e-mail. ” They are going to continue to try to retrieve the time, but the odds are not in our favor.”

Gilbert High and Phoenix Pinnacle played to a 3-3 tie in baseball on April 14, a game suspended due to darkness. The teams were discussing playing off the tie this week, but decided no date would work so they’ll just call it a tie.

Well that goes against a precedent  set last year. Mesa Westwood and Phoenix St. Mary’s  played a tie game and were told they needed to play off the tie. They did that on the Thursday afternoon less than two days before the 5A-I state tournament began. It wasn’t easy. They had to scramble, but got it done and protected the integrity of the 18-game power-point season.

Earlier in March this year Mesa High and Chandler Basha played to a tie  in baseball.  They finished the game on a Saturday in early April. Ditto Scottsdale Desert Mountain and Tempe Corona del Sol in softball. Gilbert and Pinnacle are intent on taking the tie and splitting the 90 points (45 apiece).  That’s not fair to other teams, particularly those on the bubble in trying to qualify for state. The AIA is looking into the matter to determine if the teams can indeed call the game a tie when others have played off ties. Neither Gilbert or Pinnacle has a game Monday and neither has a game Thursday. There is still time to play off the tie. They just have to be willing to make the effort. The AIA should force them to.

Mesa Red Mountain football coach Jim Jones said there’s a decent chance former Mesa Mountain View and Gilbert High football coach Jesse Parker could join his staff for next season and help run the Mountain Lions defense. Jones also said former longtime Mountain View assistant coach Jerry Wheeler may help out the varsity and team up with Gabe Marquez coaching the offensive line.

“This isn’t a done deal, but it’s a possibility,” Jones said this weekend.  Parker was head coach at Mountain View from its opening in 1976 through the 1994 season. Parker spent the last 10 years coaching Gilbert High (1999 through 2008).  Wheeler served as an assistant at Mountain View under Parker, Bernie Busken and current Toros coach Tom Joseph.

There were two ways to identify Yusuf Muhammad on Friday at the Tribune Invitational.

You could look for the first guy to cross the finish line of the 300-meter hurdles race, or just find the one wearing sunglasses at night.

No, Muhammad said, it wasn’t any sort of fashion statement.

“The whole thing with shades? It wasn’t even like a Jeremy Wariner-hype type deal,” said Muhammad of the Olympic sprinter who dons sunglasses as an accessory, even during nighttime races. “Actually, my sophomore year I came over the hurdles, and it was a little windy like it was today and my eyes started getting watery. I couldn’t really see. I almost got disqualified because my trail leg almost didn’t come over on the turns.

“I talked to my dad, and I brought up sunglasses. He said, ‘Go ahead and try them out.’ I got them, and they worked for me.”

Muhammad says he wears them every race, no matter where or when. He said they even help during his nighttime races.

“It really helps a lot with the focus factor,” Muhammad said. “Seeing some of the hurdles was a little bit difficult, but once I get up to it and see it, I’m just gone.”