Local Sports Headlines-Baseball, Softball Teams in Playoffs

After the softball playoffs began last week, the high school baseball playoffs are set to get underway later this week.

District 3-5A top seed Amarillo High will take on Monterey in a home and home series starting Friday at Monterey. Game two, and if necessary, Game three will be at the Sandies' home field on Saturday.

Randall also has a home and home series with Lubbock Cooper. The opener is on Friday at Randall before shifting to Lubbock Cooper on Saturday.

Canyon will start off against Abilene Cooper. That best of three series will be played at Westerner Field in Lubbock Friday and Saturday.

River Road beat Dimmitt 8-0 on Monday to claim the final playoff berth out of 1-3A. The Wildcats advance to play Shallowater in the bi-district round this Friday and Saturday in Canyon.

- Local softball teams play second round games this weekend. Canyon will play El Paso Parkland in a one-game playoff Saturday at 11 a.m. at Conner Park in Canyon.  Randall will face El Paso Eastlake in a best of three series at Seminole, Bushland takes on Andrews at Lubbock Estacado and River Road battles Wall at Big Spring.

- Palo Duro girls’ basketball standout Kityana Diaz made it official Monday, signing a letter of intent with Midwestern State. Diaz was a four-year player for the Lady Dons and was a first-team All-District player three times.

– West Texas A&M Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Brown has announced the addition of Aurora, Colorado native Gaige Prim to the latest recruiting class.

The 6’7 forward comes to Canyon from Grandview High School in Aurora, Colorado where he averaged 17 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks per contest as a senior.

- It’s on to the NCAA playoffs for the West Texas A&M women’s golf team. The Lady Buffs received a berth in the NCAA West Regional tournament yesterday for the fourth straight year.

The tournament is scheduled for May 8-10 at Wichita Falls Country Club in Wichita Falls.

- Trevor Ariza scored 23 points, James Harden added 20 points and 14 rebounds, and the Houston Rockets stormed past San Antonio 126-99 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, the Spurs' worst loss in a series opener under Gregg Popovich.

The Rockets were 22 for 50 on 3-pointers, the most 3s attempted and made against the Spurs in their long postseason history.

- A five-run seventh inning lifted the Houston Astros to a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night in a game that included a benches-clearing incident.

Andrew Cashner (0-3) had already plunked two Astros players when Lance McCullers threw behind Mike Napoli with two outs in the sixth. He took a couple of steps toward McCullers while yelling at him and McCullers did the same. Astros catcher Brian McCann quickly got in Napoli's face and, after a few seconds, players from both benches began spilling onto the field. Order was restored after a couple of minutes and both teams received warnings, but no one was ejected before play resumed.