Baseball
Play ball! At least, they would like to. The recurring bad-weather theme is hitting hardest here. While some leagues were able to complete regular-season scheduling, many others haven’t. Postponements have reached the hundreds statewide, not an unusual occurrence during springtime in the Rocky Mountains, but they are coming at an inopportune time.
Monday and Tuesday, reserved to help teams complete league slates, may be rendered moot by cold, wet weather as well as the Colorado High School Activities Association. Class 5A and Class 4A will be seeded by the baseball committee (comprised of representatives from each league) into 32-team brackets by lunchtime Wednesday, regardless of whether the regular season is completed.
Weekend action will begin postseason elimination play with two groups of eight four-team sites. Two victories will be required to advance to the following weekend’s quarterfinals, when double-elimination rounds start the march to championship baseball on May 21.
In 3A-2A, district rounds will be completed Saturday. Winners advance to regionals May 13-14.
Girls golf
Another get-together for the state’s top players, the Ashley Foray Invitational, will be played Monday at Rolling Hills Country Club in Golden.
It’s a class act in every fashion and a nice way to tune up before regionals in 5A (to be completed by May 11) and 4A (by May 13).
Lacrosse
The CHSAA will set postseason qualifiers by Tuesday – 32 for boys, 16 for girls.
On the boys side, there will be preliminaries (to be completed by Saturday), round of 16 (May 11), quarterfinals (May 14), semifinals (May 18) and championship (May 20); girls, round of 16 (Saturday), quarterfinals (May 11), semifinals (May 14) and title (May 17).
Girls tennis
By Saturday, we will know who has qualified for state.
Regionals will be completed by then, the prelude to the Colorado tournament for 5A (Gates Tennis Center) and 4A (City Park in Pueblo) from May 12-14.
Girls soccer
Artificial surfaces and a willingness to play in adverse conditions don’t have those on the pitch in too much of a scheduling hole.
Makeups will run into Saturday for 5A-4A, Wednesday for 3A. All postseason qualifiers will be paired by the CHSAA a week from today.
Boys swimming
They are on the blocks for the first titles of the season.
After preliminaries (5A at the Edora Pool Ice Center in Fort Collins, 4A at Mountain View High School in Loveland) Friday, spring titles
open Saturday for individuals and relays in swimming, and diving. Finals will begin at 3:30 p.m. (5A) and 5 p.m. (4A).
Track and field
Ask any area runner, jumper, hurdler or thrower – it will be nice to get outside again and compete.
By next weekend, there will be a lighter invitational schedule in addition to assorted league meets.
Then the two-week finale should be as much of a whirlwind as usual – regionals for all classes from May 13-14, then the state meets May 20-21 (5A-4A at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood, 3A-2A at Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo).
– Compiled by Neil H. Devlin
