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SUPERIOR
Baseball – No. 2-seed Pima erased an early 6 – 0 deficit against the No. 7 Panthers, scoring 11 unanswered runs to end Superior’s season with an 11 – 7 loss in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. Superior scored two runs in the first and four more in the second before Pima scored the next 11 runs – four in the second and seven in the third – to earn the win. Austin Navarrette had three hits and drove in three runs while Edgar Galindo had a hit and two RBI. Nicolaus Cruz went 2-for-4, including a double.
Softball – The Lady Panthers’ bid for back-to-back state championships ended with a 7 – 5 semifinals’ loss to No. 2-seed Santa Cruz, which lost to Ray in the Division V State Championship Game on Monday night, 7 – 5.
RAY
Baseball – The Bearcats were defeated by top-seeded Bagdad 18 – 4 in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs last Friday.
SAN MANUEL
Softball – The third-seeded Lady Miners were upset by No. 11-seed Morenci 13 – 1 in the quarterfinals of the Division IV state playoffs last Friday night at the Rose Mofford Softball Complex. Lyana Waddell, a Western New Mexico University commit, drove in the lone run for San Manuel. Nikki Baldenegro had two of the Lady Miners’ four hits in the loss, one of them a double.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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