Winslow girls No. 1 in 3A region tourney
By Manuel Jesus
Special to the Times
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| Font: N / N+ / N++ Winslow Lady Bulldogs went undefeated this season in the 3A North conference and earned the conference title and the top seed in this week's regional tournament.
With a conference record of 6-0, Winslow will receive a bye and won't play until Friday in the semifinal round against Chinle.
Winslow is also a young team.
"The only thing about this team was that I had more freshmen than in the years before," said coach Beckey Barris.
Barris is coaching her eighth season with Winslow and said her freshmen players have plenty of experience to be competitive because many played with other softball clubs.
"Every year it's been very difficult," said Barris about 3A North competition. " We seem to have a target on our backs. Each team is getting better every year.
"We're real excited," said Barris about the regional and state playoffs. "Our goal this year was to get to the second round of the state playoffs. Just play one game at a time and hopefully get to the state championship game."
Barris said her team has won the conference title eight consecutive times.
In the latest Arizona 3A softball power rankings, Winslow is No. 1 in 3A, while Window Rock is No. 3. Other teams include Tuba City at No. 9, Chinle at No. 10 and Ganado at No. 14.
This year the 3A state softball championship game will be held at the Rose Mofford Softball Complex beginning May 2 for the first round. The semifinals and championship games will May 9 and 10.
The 3A North Region tournament kicked off Monday with two games. No. 4 Chinle (15-14, 5-2) ended No. 5 Ganado's season with a 14-4 score in Kayenta. Ganado finished 6-12 and 3-3 in the conference.
Chinle will now play Winslow at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. MST) Friday in Winslow in a regional semifinal.
In the other first round game, No. 6 Monument Valley (5-9, 1-6) had no problem eliminating winless No. 7 Holbrook (0-19, 0-6) with a 22-12 score in five innings.
Monument Valley played No. 3 Tuba City (7-8, 5-2) Wednesday. At press time, no results were available. The winner will play Window Rock Friday at 4 p.m. (5 p.m. MST) in a semifinal game.
The winner of the semifinal games will play in the championship game on Saturday at 12 p.m. (1 p.m. MST) and the third place game is at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. MST).
Winslow ended its season with a 27-4 overall record and a perfect 6-0 in conference.
