Russ Tuemmler

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Russ Tuemmler: The Mesa Mountain View shortstop had a productive week, going 7-for-14 with a home run, three doubles and eight RBIs. Tuemmler drove in the tying or winning run in three of his team’s four wins in last week’s Mesquite-Skyline Tournament. Tuemmler is hitting .419 with 19 RBIs for the year.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

With preseason and spring break tournaments in the rearview mirror, it’s time to sift through teams records and find how they are doing in their bid to become one of 16 teams to qualify for the state in their respective 5A and 4A tournaments come late April and May.

The school that has done the best in picking the right games to lose is Mesa Red Mountain, which sports a 10-6 record overall. For power-point purposes the Mountain Lions are 6-0. Their 4-6 record in two invitationals doesn’t hurt at all, and 5A East Valley Region rival Mesa Westwood likes the way Red Mountain goes about its business.

The Warriors are 5-0-1 in games that count; 3-6 in tournament games that don’t. Another school wading successfully through the power-point waters is Gilbert Mesquite. The Wildcats are 5-0 in games that count. Their five losses are all in tournaments.

Not so fortunate is Scottsdale Desert Mountain. The Wolves are 5-3 in games that count. Their losses are to Red Mountain, Chandler Hamilton and Phoenix Mountain Pointe. All three of those teams have winning records. None of the teams Westwood has defeated sports a winning record. The record of opponent’s Westwood has beaten is 8-34. The record of teams Desert Mountain has beaten (five) is 18-17.

TIDBITS

Tempe Corona del Sol second baseman Mike Felton, one of the top hitters for average locally this year, went hitless in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to Red Mountain. Felton goes to the dish looking to hit one way or the other. In 54 official at-bats, Felton has fanned once and walked once. He is batting .537.

ASU-bound Hamilton outfielder Kyle Peterson is starting to catch fire in all phases. He eclipsed the ,350 mark in hitting earlier this week and now leads local 5A players in home runs with six.

Chandler High pitcher Mike Handel notched win No. 4 Tuesday without a defeat, keeping Gilbert off-balance in an 11-3 Wolves’ romp.

Scottsdale Horizon, which returned six starters from last year’s 5A-I title team, is down to three starters with suspensions and injuries digging into coach Eric Kibler’s squad. Conner Hulse, expected to be the Huskies ace, is injured and hasn’t pitched since the first week of this month. The Huskies are 12-6 and tied for first after one game of region play in their new Pima Region home.

LOOKING AHEAD

There are some good matchups to take a gander at today, and many are nonregion tilts. In 4 p.m. contests, Chandler Basha visits Westwood, Tempe Marcos de Niza is at Red Mountain and Desert Mountain is at Phoenix Pinnacle. At 7 p.m,, Corona del Sol travels to Horizon. Next week, region play becomes the norm for 5A and 4A squads.