One of the funniest things that ever happened to me was when I met the Dalai Lama.

After the press conference he walked straight over to me, pinched both cheeks and asked me in a whisper, “Are you from Mexico?”

I responded, “NO, I’m from Arizona.” He then whispered something else in my ear.

As I looked around I noticed every camera in the room had turned on me. I made every newscast. My family in Casa Grande even saw it.

When a reporter pulled me aside and said, “Oh, my God, you must be blessed. What did the Dalai Lama say to you?”

I responded, “He said I was the darkest Mexican he ever saw.”

FRANCISCO MEDINA

Photographer

It’s odd for the “highlights” of my career to be marked by tragedies. Major news events on deadline put a journalist to the test – the times you look back on and marvel at how so much got done in so little time and how well it was done. I can see exactly what I was doing at work when the first shuttle blew up, when the tragedy in Bhopal was revealed, when students were killed at Columbine, when we went to war in Iraq and, of course, on Sept. 11, 2001. I remember so clearly saying, “Paul, did you see that (Associated Press) bulletin that a plane flew into the World Trade Center?”

Despite 24-plus years of cynicism and deadline pressure for nearly every working hour of every working day, I’m going to miss the whole thing.

Newsrooms are odd places. They are places where daily discussions – of grammar and design, politics and current events – involve everyone within earshot and we never agree.

Journalists are odd creatures, many overflowing with sarcasm, cynicism and vitriol. I love them!

MJ McVAY

Designer

STEVE RIVERA

srivera@tucsoncitizen.com

We know how all this ends, so we’ll start at the beginning.

In truth, I never – ever – wanted to be the Arizona men’s basketball beat guy back in the early 1990s. I all but refused, as did Dave Petruska when it was going to be either him or me in taking over for former beat writer Cindy Somers.

I had heard many a time that head coach Lute Olson didn’t like the media, and often was surly with the bunch. But I took it and don’t regret one minute of it. Two books and thousands upon thousands of stories later it all ends for the Citizen.

I have no regrets.

How can there be? In 18 years of covering the team, I’ve covered 625 Arizona games (minus two for the birth of my first child). But this will be a testament to the Arizona program: UA is 476-149 in my time (missed wins not included). That’s an average of 26.4 wins and 8.2 losses a season.

Amazing.

Thanks for the ride. Thanks for the winning. It’s better to cover a winner than it is a loser. And, Lute wasn’t that bad. He seemed to always return calls. And in this business that’s all you can ask – beginning to end.

I have many memories of covering the Arizona basketball team the last 18 seasons, but here are my top three:

1) The national title run

The thing I’ll remember the most is the mad scramble after the game.

When Kansas star Raef LaFrentz missed a 3-pointer from the corner in an attempt to tie the game against Arizona in the Sweet 16, the UA Wildcats were overjoyed in the 85-82 win. UA had knocked off what was perceived to be the most dominating team of that season in 1997. Jason Terry jumped on the scorer’s table. Players searched for hugs. It was bedlam crazy.

Heck, I remember frantically calling the airlines to see what I needed to do to change the paper’s airplane tickets just in case Arizona defeated its next opponent (turned out to be Providence) in the Elite Eight.

C-R-A-Z-Y.

It helped Arizona gain confidence, paving the way to a national title. Against No. 1 Kansas, it played near flawless basketball, save for giving up an 11-0 run near the end of the game to make it close.

“It had to be a perfect game,” Jason Terry said at the time. “We had to do it all.”

Arizona did, behind freshman guard Mike Bibby’s 21 points in a kid-cool performance.

“This was big because the whole nation was watching,” Terry said. “We had a lot of doubters and it feels good when you stick a fork in them.”

2) Wildcats in the pros

Apparently 1997 was a big basketball year. Back in the day when there was a huge following for UA hoops young and old, I spent nearly two weeks traveling back and forth from Chicago to Salt Lake City following the Chicago Bulls. The reason? Former UA stars Steve Kerr, Jud Buechler and Brian Williams were with the Bulls and playing in the NBA Finals.

I was able to write about Michael Jordan’s 38-point performance as he played with horrible flu-like symptoms in Salt Lake City in pivotal Game 5. Many thought he wouldn’t play at all, but he found a way and had an incredible game as Chicago won, 90-88, to go up 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.

Then came the NBA Finals, Game 6. I can’t remember how I felt, but I do remember the basketball gods had me there to tell the story. And Kerr was the story.

With Chicago needing a basket in the game’s final seconds, who will the Bulls turn to? Of course, Jordan. Not so fast. It was Kerr who hit the game-winning shot (with an assist from Jordan), furthering Kerr’s legend as a sharpshooter. He later would say hitting that “big shot was my most memorable moment.”

When the Bulls had their day to celebrate in front of thousands of fans, Kerr used his typical humor to explain the play.

“When we called timeout with 25 seconds to go we went into the huddle and Phil told Michael, ‘I want you to take the last shot,’ and Michael said, ‘I don’t feel real comfortable in these situations. Maybe we need to go in another direction.’ I thought to myself, well, I guess have to bail out Michael out again.’ ”

3) UA’s collapse vs. Illinois

Sometimes I think back and still can’t believe it. Arizona had a 77-63 lead with 3:20 remaining and an 80-72 lead left with just more than a minute left and couldn’t hold off Illinois in the Elite Eight in 2005.

It would have solidified UA coach Lute Olson’s legacy, as it would have been his sixth Final Four. All Arizona needed was one basket to stem Illinois’ late-game run. It couldn’t get it. And eventually it lost, 90-89 in overtime in Rosemont, Ill.

Being on the losing side of that game was “unbelievably painful,” Olson said in his autobiography, ‘Lute: The Seasons of My Life.’ “This game ranked close to the 2001 loss to Duke in the championship game as the toughest of my career. As hard as it was for me, I’d been through more than a thousand games, for the team this was just devastating. I felt awful for our seniors.”

One sportswriter’s locker full of memories

Rivera

TOP UA PLAYERS BY DECADE

2000s Luke Walton, F ’00-’03

1990s Mike Bibby, G ’97-’98

1980s Sean Elliott, F ’86-’89

1970s Bob Elliott, C ’74-’77

1960s Warren Rustand, F ’63-’65

1950s Ernie McCray, C ’88-’91

1940s Link Richmond, F ’44-’49

1930s Lorry DiGrazia, F ’36-’38

1920s Harold Tovrea, G ’21-’24

1910s James Herndon, NA ’17-’19

1900s Charles Brown, NA ’05-’06

As picked by Steve Rivera, based on overall play and intangibles.

Rivera’s favorite

all-time players

Great quote: Channing Frye, Gene Edgerson, Joseph Blair. Quirkiest: Tie, Gilbert Arenas and Bennett Davison. Unbelievable talent but horrible quote: Khalid Reeves. Unflappable: Mike Bibby. Unluckiest: Jawann McClellan. Surly, but good: Salim Stoudamire

Moment with Candrea

STEVE RIVERA

I also covered two Olympics for the Citizen: 2000 in Sydney and 2004 in Athens.

The 2004 Games affected me the most when UA softball coach Mike Candrea led Team USA to a gold medal.

Candrea’s team dominated, not that it was a surprise in going 9-0 and outscoring opponents 51-1. It was his humility, poise and pride in the journey. It came just five weeks after his wife, Sue, died of a brain aneurysm while on the pre-Games tour.

I remember him in the dugout, hand on chin, taking in the team celebration on the field. Heartfelt and memorable.

“I thanked them all for the greatest moment of my life,” he said at the time. “I love this team.”

And, through it all, he didn’t get a medal. Coaches don’t get medals.

“That’s not what this is about,” he said.

RIVERA’S ALL-STARS

FIRST TEAM

Mike Bibby, G 1997-98

Gilbert Arenas, G 2000-01

Channing Frye, C 2002-05

Jordan Hill, F 2007-09

Andre Iguodala, F (left) 2003-04

SECOND TEAM

Damon Stoudamire, G 1992-95

Khalid Reeves, G 1991-94

Jason Terry, G 1996-99

Luke Walton, F 2000-03

Michael Dickerson, F 1995-98

THIRD TEAM

Jason Gardner, G 2000-03

Jerryd Bayless, G 2008

Chris Mills, G 1991-93

Richard Jefferson, F 1999-01

Sean Rooks, C 1989-92

• Includes players from last 18 seasons, when Rivera covered UA.

CORKY SIMPSON

An airplane of some sort flew over my house the other day, so high up there you couldn’t see it – just the long wake of silken contrail across the sky. At some point the white vapor line began to fold, like ribbon candy, then it broke apart.

Then it became a smudge, a streak of white slowly erased from a blue chalkboard.

As you know, this great little newspaper is fading away, the victim of relentless arithmetic and a soulless economy.

And nothing will be missed more than the Citizen Sports section.

Forever ragged-on as the toy department, Sports has actually been an island of sanity in a stormy sea of political, financial and crime news.

What you’ve read here has made sense, for the most part. And that’s why you turned to Sports.

Press Row has always had an essential part in the games we love to watch. I can’t imagine a big sporting event without the ink-stained wretches of the media there to tell the story.

In times like these, the sports pages are like a warm breath blown through cold fingers.

And it saddens me more than I can tell you that the Tucson Citizen is about to draw its last breath.

We’ve been there on the greatest days of University of Arizona athletics. We covered the national championships, the Olympic gold medalists, the dreams come true.

And more than a few nightmares.

It was my great fortune to join the Citizen’s Sports department in August 1976, after two years on the news side. Bruce Johnston covered Wildcats football, Steve Weston basketball, Regis McAuley wrote columns, Naaman Nickell was the copy chief and Jack Rickard was the sports editor.

For the better part of three decades, I slid in and out of various beats. After Regis retired, I stuck mostly to columns.

Johnston became sports editor after a time, followed by Peter Madrid and then the current top guy, Mike Chesnick. Somewhere in there, the late Phil Hamilton filled in briefly.

Nothing I ever covered was as much fun as the Tucson Sky professional volleyball team. The Sky was the last world champion of the International Volleyball Association, in 1979. The league folded the following year; the Sky never did.

And every once in a while, somebody will dig up the grave of that motley mascot, Spike the Skygull, and wear the costume to a party. Doug Clark owned the Sky, along with Burt Kinerk and others. Games were played at Catalina High School. At halftime, fans would go outside on the parking lot to smoke. Some used tobacco.

Bob Garrett was the general manager, the funniest man alive. I went to lunch one day with Bob at the old Cafe Olé downtown. In order to pay for his liverwurst sandwich, he first had to go to the bank and I went along. All of a sudden I noticed Bob, standing in line as if nothing were wrong, wearing the large, yellow foam feet of Spike, including ugly toenails.

The most inspirational team was the 1980 Arizona national championship baseball team, so ably coached by Jerry Kindall, Jim Wing and Jerry Stitt. The Wildcats, led by outfielder Terry Francona, now the manager of the Boston Red Sox, were dead last in the Pacific-10 Conference Southern Division (“Six Pac”) at semester break.

They roared back, winning almost every game in the final inning or two, and took the conference title. Then they came back through the losers’ bracket at the College World Series in Omaha to win the NCAA championship, UA’s first in a team sport.

Jim Young was the finest coach I ever met. He was Arizona football coach from 1973 through 1976. He was a winner here, at Purdue and then at West Point, using different offensive philosophies at each stop.

The late Larry Smith and his Arizona football teams were a joy to cover. I still can’t believe Smitty’s been gone now more than a year. His wife, Cheryl, brought the same positive influence to Arizona football that Bobbi Olson, Lute’s late wife, did to Wildcats basketball.

Lute, of course, is a Tucson monument. His 24 years as head coach brought the school its greatest athletic accomplishments . . . 589 victories, the 1997 NCAA championship, four Final Four appearances, 11 Pacific-10 Conference championships, an unbelievable 43-7 record against Arizona State.

As sports columnist, I got to travel along with some wonderful beat writers to the big games: Dave Petruska, Steve Rivera, Bryan Lee, Charles Durrenberger and then John Moredich in football. . . . Rickard, Cindy Somers and then Rivera in basketball. . . . Petruska in baseball.

It was a pleasure to work with some of the finest athletic directors in UA history . . . Dave Strack, Cedric Dempsey and Jim Livengood. And with sports information directors Frank Soltys, Bob Jacobsen, Mike Parkinson, Butch Henry and Tom Duddleston.

Covering Tucson’s La Fiesta de los Vaqueros rodeo for many years was a treat. So was the old Tucson Open golf tournament, run so well by the Conquistadores, the greatest group of volunteers in the country.

The men and women I’ve worked with in Sports, writers and editors, were dedicated, talented people. We were an afternoon paper in an age when people preferred to read their news in the morning. We felt we had to work harder than our competitors.

We were like a Jeep battling its way out of the swamp.

I wish the Arizona Daily Star nothing but the best. You’re on your own now, guys. We can’t help you anymore. Good luck.

From the perspective of a retirement which I entered two years ago, I have grown to appreciate even more the work of the two daily newspapers in Tucson.

Now there’ll be only one.

And it breaks my heart.

Former Citizen Sports Columnist Corky Simpson’s book, “Corky: 30 Years of Sports Commentary, Heroes, Egos, Gloves, Sweat and Tears,” is still available. E-mail him at jokewriter@yahoo.com

Citizen Staff Report

The University of Arizona softball team snapped a three-game losing streak with an easy win Friday.

Stacie Chambers and K’Lee Arredondo both homered to back pitcher Jennifer Martinez as the No. 6-ranked Wildcats (40-14, 12-7) beat Oregon State 10-0 in five innings.

Chambers blasted a grand slam in the first inning to put UA up 4-0, raising her totals 28 homers and 85 RBIs for the year.

Arredondo, who went 3 for 4, hit a solo homer in the second to put the Wildcats up 5-0.

UA added three runs in the fourth and two in the fifth in the mercy-rule win.

Chambers and Brittany Lastrapes both had two hits for UA.

Martinez allowed three hits in five innings. She struck out two in improving to 10-4.

The Wildcats conclude their regular season with a game at Oregon State at noon Saturday.

UA will find out if it hosts an NCAA regional when the brackets are announced at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU.

UA women’s golf

The Wildcats are tied for ninth place after two rounds of the NCAA West Regional Tournament in Tempe.

UA has a 12-over total score. Leader Arizona State is at 20-under.

Arizona sophomore Alejandra Llaneza leads the Wildcats with an even-par 144. ASU’s Carlota Ciganda leads all individuals with a 9-under 135.

Other Wildcat totals are Isabelle Boineau (2-over), Margarita Ramos (3-over), Nikki Koller (8-over) and Amanda Wilson (10-over). The final round starts at 8 a.m. Saturday.

Cycling

With five top-10 finishes in his last 10 starts, including a first and second place, Tucson’s Nick Schreiber holds third place in the Arizona Bicycle Racing Association’s Copper Cup season point standings.

Schreiber has totaled 218 points, with Brian Forbes of Mesa leads with 404 in the men’s Category 1-2.

Other Tucsonans in the top 30 are David Swanson, ninth (155), Thomas Jondall, 13th (127), Kyle Colavito, 26th (45) and Tim Carolan, 27th (35).

In the women’s Pro 1-2, Tucson holds five places in the top 10, led by Tammy Lamb, fifth (51). She’s followed by Spring Clegg and Sarah Swanson, tied for seventh (27), Kathryn Bertine, ninth (26) and Chloe Black, two-way tie for 10th (20).

Scott Baker has totaled 298 points to lead the masters men’s 45-49 group in a Tucson 1-2-3 placing. He’s followed by Peter Brown (293) and Jesus Lamb (215).

Lisa Ribes, recovered from winter bicycle injuries, holds a comfortable lead in women’s Category 3, with 60. Jo Roberts tops Carolyn Carbone 58-36 for the women’s masters 45-49 lead.

The Arizona Republic

GLENDALE – It was an all Ironwood Ridge matchup in the Class 5A Division II boys doubles championship with No. 1 Timothy Holten and Dillon Kennedy defeating No. 2 Josh Taylor and Conor Spiegel 7-5, 6-1 for their second straight title.

Both sides came out strong in the first set, but Holten and Kennedy stepped it up in the second set against the familiar faces.

“It’s very odd facing your teammates,” Holten said. “But I’m glad they made it there too. It was a good battle.”

Kennedy thought the match was a good sign for Ironwood Ridge, which last week won its second straight team championship.

“It just shows how strong our team is that two of us can get that deep in the tournament,” Kennedy said. “It’s nice, but at the same time, it’s hard to see your teammates go down.”

Kennedy had a strong serve all match long, and Holten kept tracking down shots to his left and right with ease. The chemistry proved once again to be a winning combination.

“It’s awesome,” Kennedy said. “Two years in a row doesn’t happen very often so it’s special.”

Classmate Shannon Contreras fell 6-2, 6-0 in the 5A-II girls singles championship to Phoenix Pinnacle’s Priscilla Annoul.

Contreras, the team captain, earned the No. 1 seed in the tournament and advanced to the championship despite a large blister developing on her hand during Friday’s quarterfinal match.

5A-I girls

Senior Maggie McGeorge fell to Tempe Corona del Sol’s Kelsey Lawson 6-1, 6-1 in the Class 5A Division I singles championship.

Salpointe coach Perri Touché will lose McGeorge to graduation, and that loss brought on a few tears Saturday. She coached McGeorge throughout her career and thinks of her as one of her own.

“She’s been very successful on and off the court,” Touché said. “You name it, this kid has done it. It’s been an honor.”

Touché did have reason to celebrate and look forward. Her doubles team, a pair of freshmen cousins, earned the state title with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 victory over Xavier.

The girls, Lauren and Courtney Amos, battled through and won a first-set tiebreaker, which proved the turning point in the match.

Touché had a feeling the girls would win.

“The kids kind of got it,” she said, referring to the tiebreak. “They had momentum, and they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.”

The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX – You might say they were poised for perfection.

The St. Gregory College Preparatory School boys tennis team completed a perfect season Saturday by beating Phoenix Valley Lutheran, 5-0, in the Class 1A championship at Phoenix Tennis Center.

St. Gregory went 15-0 this year to capture its second straight title.

“We definitely knew we had a good chance of bringing home the state title,” St. Gregory’s Jason Huo said after enduring a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) win over Ben Meyer at No. 1 singles to seal the team title.

“We pulled through at the end. It’s a very gratifying moment for me and my team to win a state title.”

Three of St. Gregory’s wins came against 4A and 5A schools – a scheduling tactic coach Mark Swenson intends to continue.

St. Gregory’s Jess Weinstein beat T.J. Mendenhall, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 3 singles. Ryan Shainen beat Ben Bolognini, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 4. Youngwoo Seo beat Joel Kosberg, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 5. Chase Gerwin beat John Watson, 6-2, 6-1, at No. 6.

“I’m really happy with the season, not only with winning the state title, but doing well against the big schools,” Swenson said. “It feels important because we’re among the elite.”

Huo fell behind 6-5 in the second set before forcing a tie-breaker.

“Ben’s got an extremely solid forehand that I’ve got to look out for,” Huo said, adding he felt pressure to win the team’s decisive fifth point when he and teammate Sang Seo were still locked into long matches.

“It makes me really anxious. I had a fear of losing. One of us had to pull it out.”

The Arizona Republic

GLENDALE – Born 367 days apart, a pair of Palo Verde High School brothers battled it out Saturday in the Class 4A Division II tournament singles final.

With a powerful left-handed serve, the taller, younger Carlos Bermudez returned from a deficit to win the first set 6-4, then coasted in the second 6-1.

The top-seeded sophomore said he took pleasure in winning the tense match against brother Dominic, a sixth-seeded junior who won the individual championship as a freshman in 2007.

“I think he was nervous because I beat him last week, too,” Carlos said, referring to a win the 4A Gila Region championship. “(Our rivalry) goes back and forth, but, recently, I’ve been winning.”

The self-officiated match quickly became a heated one. Long rallies were often completed with close calls, brothers muttering under their breath and slapping their rackets against their thighs.

The competitors went through two different line judges after disagreements on calls. In between games they sat side-by-side on the bench, though neither looked tempted to speak to the other.

After graciously shaking hands at the end, Carlos was all smiles.

“This is what the school has been wanting,” he said. “The kids on the team want to win state, too.”

Palo Verde is a three seed in the team portion of the tournament and needs a win against Cottonwood Mingus on Tuesday to reach the semifinal.

4A-I boys

In a matchup of two friends and Catalina Foothills teammates, Zack Haffor got an early break in the first set against Daniel Hyman and rode that momentum to a 6-4, 6-3 win in the 4A Division I boys singles championship.

Just a short time earlier on a neighboring court at the Paseo Racquet Center, Goodyear Millennium’s Hunter and Yates Johnson topped Foothills’ Michael Tringali and Ravi Ram to capture the doubles championship.

Haffor and Hyman had to contend with fatigue after both played three-set matches in the semifinal round, and then in the championship both had to deal with the midday heat and moderate humidity on the near 90-degree afternoon.

“It was tougher than I thought,” Haffor said of the conditions. “But once I got that break in the first set, the momentum flipped and I was able to go from there.”

Haffor, the top seed, and Hyman, the No. 2 seed, each held serve in the first set before Haffor got that key break to enable him to take the first set, 6-4. Haffor didn’t let up after that, breaking Hyman’s serve twice more in the early going of the second set and then cruising to the championship.

While Haffor was happy to come away with the championship, beating his friend and teammate Hyman was bittersweet.

“It’s good because we’re really good friends,” Haffor said. “But it’s kind of tough because you’ve still got to drive back (to Tucson) together, knowing one of you won and one of you lost.”

Meanwhile, Millennium’s freshman twins, Hunter and Yates Johnson, took home the doubles championship with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Despite looking physically overmatched against the Foothills seniors Tringali and Ram, both of whom are more than 6 feet tall, the Johnson twins kept their opponents off balance with their array of volleys and groundstrokes to come away with the title.

4A-I girls

In her first year of playing high school tennis, third-ranked Nikki Parker of Scottsdale Chaparral upset the No. 1 seed, Zaina Sufi of Catalina Foothills, 6-4, 6-4 in the 4A-I singles title match in Glendale.

Sufi put the first games up in each set, but 15-year-old Parker was consistent, never falling more than a game behind.

“I just kept pushing every point,” Parker said. “I kept playing and being aggressive. I gave it all I had. Everything. I left it all out there.”

RAYMOND SUAREZ

rsuarez@tucsoncitizen.com

The Class 5A Division I high school tennis state tournament featured a faceoff between Salpointe Catholic teammates in the quarterfinals Friday.

No. 2-seeded Maggie McGeorge of Salpointe defeated No. 7 seed Christine Mordaunt 6-0, 6-0 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

In doubles, No. 1 seed Courtney Amos and Lauren Amos advanced after winning their quarterfinals matchup 6-0, 6-1.

In boys singles competition, Salpointe’s No. 4 Mitch McDaniels advanced after winning 6-3, 6-1.

• In the 5A-II tournament, Rincon/University’s Samantha Lund and Ironwood Ridge’s Shannon Contreras each advanced to the semifinals in the singles.

No. 1-seeded Contreras and No. 3 Lund would face off in the finals if both win.

On the boys side, two Ironwood Ridge doubles teams could meet in the finals.

No. 2-seeded Josh Taylor and Conor Spiegel won 6-4, 6-2 while teammates and No. 1-seeded Timothy Holten and Dillon Kennedy marched to a 6-1, 6-0 win.

RODNEY HAAS

sports@tucsoncitizen.com

With only one senior returning, the Mountain View High School boys volleyball team didn’t expect much this season.

But with a 19-13 record, the Mountain Lions are finding themselves in position to make the Class 4A/5A Division I state tournament.

Thursday night, Mountain View couldn’t knock off perennial power Salpointe Catholic, but the Mountain Lions took the Lancers to the limit in a 3-2 loss.

Game scores were 25-23, 25-17, 13-25, 24-26, 15-13.

“I think for our kids to compete and (close in) on the state tournament, we feel pretty good,” Mountain View coach Rick Ellis said.

Mountain View dropped the first two games, but rallied to win the next two.

“We started off pretty tough and then we lost our focus in the last two games but then we got it back in the fifth game,” said Salpointe’s Mike Smith who had 11 digs and seven kills.

“We started off pretty pumped up because we knew we could beat them, but they gave a fight in the end.”

Ellis liked the emotion he saw from his team in the loss.

“I thought we were going to win Game 5 with the way they played Game 3 and Game 4,” Ellis said. “That was the most energy we’ve seen. They were actually talking and celebrating. We’ve always told them that volleyball should be fun . . . sometime I think they take it way too serious. So it was nice to see the effort.”

Aaron Esparza, Franc Smith and Bryan LaFrese led the Lancers with 14 digs while Richie Hamm led Mountain View with 17 kills and 11 digs.

Salpointe coach Amy Johnson was pleased with her team’s effort.

“I’m real proud of the way our guys played, they did a real good,” Johnson said. “You know when you get to the state tournament you’re going to play five-game matches so I think it’s good to get a couple under your belt that go your way.”

KEN BRAZZLE

kbrazzle@tucsoncitizen.com

Chalk one up for the student.

Casa Grande baseball coach Kent Winslow, who coached the Salpointe Catholic baseball team in 2008, made his return to the school Thursday.

Salpointe, now coached by former Winslow player and assistant coach Danny Preble, beat up on the visiting Cougars 12-2 in a game stopped after five innings.

Preble and the Lancers also beat Winslow’s team earlier this season 11-3 in Casa Grande.

“I learned a lot from (Winslow) last year,” Preble said. “I am upset that he left because I didn’t get to learn more from him. But at the same time I get my chance now. It has been fun.”

Preble has Salpointe (15-10) in contention for the Class 5A-I Southern Region title with a 3-1 league record. Tucson High is 4-1 in region games. The two teams play Friday at Salpointe.

“We’ve got three huge ball games left and the goal has always been to play on May 2,” Preble said, referring to the day the 5A-I state playoffs begin.

Salpointe extended its winning streak to seven. Casa Grande fell to 4-19-2 on the season.

“We’ve been playing well,” Preble said. “The kids are starting to buy into the process we introduced at the beginning of the year. It took us a few weeks. We took our lumps. They’re really buying in and having fun doing it. It shows on the field.”

Salpointe collected 13 hits and got a combined four-hitter from pitchers A.J. Alexander and Mike Sjoquist in Thursday’s victory.

Alexander gave up all four hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out one.

Alexander aided his own cause with two hits and two RBIs at the plate.

Salpointe scored two runs in the top of the first and three more in the second.

Sahuarita 5, Douglas 0: At Douglas, pitcher Josh Scoggin carried a perfect game through 5 1/2 innings and struck out 10 hitters as Sahuarita took over sole possession of first place in the 4A Gila Region standings with a 6-1 record.

Scoggin ended up with a one-hitter, keeping the Mustangs in second place in the 4A Division II Power Rankings.

Douglas falls to 6-2 in league play.

Amphi 4, Palo Verde 2: Junior Alex Brown took over on the mound and at the plate in the Panthers’ victory.

With the Titans up 1-0 in the first inning, Brown hit a three-run homer to help his own cause.

On the mound, Brown finished with nine strikeouts while giving up only three hits.

Brown’s first-inning homer gave him three homers in his last three at-bats. In his past three games on the mound, he has allowed just six hits.

Ironwood Ridge 4, Sierra Vista Buena 3: With two outs in the top of the seventh, junior Will Meyer hit the go-ahead RBI single to win it for the Nighthawks. Junior Alex Worden scored the winning run.

Cholla 16, Marana 6: Juniors Nick Ochoa and Rene Ortiz did their part for the Chargers. Ochoa finished 3 for 3 with two RBIs while Ortiz went 3 for 4 with two RBIs.

Clarification

An item published on Thursday’s TC Varsity high school sports page did not include the contact information for Bryan Huie, who is conducting a May 23 tryout for his Chicago White Sox fall scout team.

For information on the tryouts, which will be held at Sahuarita High School, call Huie at 850-1579.

The team is open to baseball players in southern Arizona who will be in high school during the 2009-10 school year.

Staff writers Raymond Suarez and Geoff Grammer contributed to this article.