SOFTBALL: CDO beat Sunnyside 6-4 in D-II Top-10 game

April 1, 2016 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365


Gabi Blevins (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

Canyon del Oro defeated Sunnyside 6-4 in an important Division II match Friday between two teams currently ranked in the Top 10. CDO (17-1-1 overall and 9-1 in power-ranking games) is ranked second in the state as of Friday morning and Sunnyside (12-10, 5-3) came in ranked eighth.

Gabi Blevins got the start for the Dorados and Tori Hernandez took the circle for the Blue Devils. Both teams came up empty in the first inning but Sunnyside plated two runs in the top of the second, taking advantage of several miscues by the Dorados.

Hernandez drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in Gabby Torres and Jokaira Paredes followed with an infield hit to score Grisdey Paredes. CDO struck back in the bottom half on the inning after Brenna Griesser scored on a passed ball and Bailey Thompson brought in Nene Campos on a groundout RBI.

The Dorados appeared to take control of the game in the bottom of the fourth after Campos scored Alexis Kaiser and Ilena Santos doubled in Campos but Sunnyside tied the game back up 4-4 in the top of the fifth.

Jokaira Paredes lead off with a  double and Torres scored her two outs later on an infield hit. Edith Prieto followed with another infield hit and Grisdey Paredes  reached on a  dropped third strike to load the bases. Viviana Orantez brought in Torres on another infield hit to tie the game.

Randi Longville relieved Blevins with the bases loaded and she collected a strikeout to end the threat.

Canyon del Oro scored two in the bottom of the fifth to provide the final 6-4 score. Ellessa Bonstrom singled to start things off and she moved to second on an error and then third on a passed ball. Carli Campbell reached on a fielder's choice and Bonstrom scored on the play after beating out the throw home.

Griesser belted a double later in the inning to score Campbell. Sunnyside left two on in the sixth with one out and Halle Morris came in for the save in the seventh.

Jokaira Paredes led Sunnyside by going 2-4 with a double and an RBI and Jazmyn Zepeda went 2-3 with a double. Arianna Acedo went 2-3 for CDO. Longville (9-1) got the win and Morris picked up her first save of the season

CDO hosts Marana (7-13) on Monday before heading out to California to play in the Michelle Carew Tournament. The tournament is named after the late daughter of Hall of Famer Rod Carew who passed away in April of 1996. Sunnyside will travel to Nogales (12-7-1) on Monday.

As always, preseason and midseason tournaments are not part of the power-point equation and do not effect rankings. Ironwood Ridge (9-0 in power-ranking games) is ranked No.1 followed by CDO (9-1) and Salpointe (9-1) is ranked third. None of those three teams have played each other in games that count towards playoff seeding

24 teams will make the D-I, D-II, D-IV and D-V state playoffs while 32 will play in the D-III state playoffs. All section winners will earn an automatic bid but will not be guaranteed a high seed. All seeding will be based on rankings only.

The state tournament expanded to five divisions this year instead of four.