First thing’s first: Even though he had no possible reason to want to hit Dodgers instant-living-legend Yasiel Puig with a 2-0 lead and no one on in the sixth inning last Tuesday, Arizona’s Ian Kennedy put a pitch where you just don’t put a pitch in today’s baseball.

Mattie Merrell pitched a complete game, two-hitter, while also hitting a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to lead host Queen Creek to a 2-1 victory over Higley on Thursday.

Down two runs in the bottom of the seventh, Hamilton’s Ryan Peep smacked a walk off two-run double to propel the Huskies baseball team to a 7-6 comeback victory over visiting Horizon on Tuesday.

If the Phoenix Coyotes snap their run of three straight Stanley Cup Playoff appearances this spring, you can blame Thursdays.

My first thought when the Suns acquired Marcus Morris from the Houston Rockets?

Division I

PRESCOTT VALLEY - Ted Rico stood on the podium at last year’s state tournament and felt nothing but disappointment.

Declarations were first made during tryouts, when Campo Verde coach Rosanne Headley declared to her girls that the goal was a state title, and anyone not interested, "grab your bag and there's the gate," she recalled.

In a home quarterfinals match for No. 4 Campo Verde's girls soccer team, the Coyotes' Breanna Olsen scored two goals, including one on a penalty kick to lead Campo Verde to a 4-0 win over No. 5 Fountain Hills in the Div. II quarterfinals.

Scoring chance after scoring chance rolled to Campo Verde's boys' feet, but the conversion part kept bouncing away.

The Cardinals are back to drafting in the top 10, back to enduring losing streaks that last months. They have fired the coach that guided them to the Super Bowl and have no quarterback in a league where it is the No. 1 requirement.

Eric Mormon’s header with four minutes remaining in overtime helped No. 6 Campo Verde avoid a first-round upset and beat No. 11 Notre Dame, 3-2,  on Wednesday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the Division II Boys State Soccer Tournament.

Fighting both wind and foe, Arcadia’s Kate Staudenmaier scored the game’s only goal on a free kick in the 56^th minute to knock visiting Marana out of the Division II girls soccer state tournament and carry the Titans into the quarterfinals.

Who’s ready to make the leap?

Gilbert continued its late-season success with another boys basketball win on Thursday night, a 64-49 win at Mesquite.

Freshman Teddy Allen had 31 points as Desert Ridge defeated Dobson, 90-81, in a Division I boys basketball matchup on Tuesday night.

Phoenix has Stand Up Live Comedy Theater. Jester’Z is in Scottsdale. And Mesa’s home to the National Comedy Theater. Soon, there will be a live comedy option in Gilbert.

PHOENIX — Military-style semiautomatic rifles have been used in at least four high-profile shootings in the past year. Bushmaster variations of the weapon have been used in two recent attacks, including the Newtown, Conn., school shootings and the Christmas Eve ambush slayings of two New York firefighters. While commonly called the AR-15, Colt and Armalite have been the only companies to make weapons by that specific name. Many other manufacturers, however, now sell similar versions of the rifle largely styled after the military's fully automatic M-16.

The Horizon girls volleyball team only lost one match to an in-state opponent this year, and Nikki Hess could do nothing to stop it.

A lot of people like to make predictions on what is going to happen. Too few of us take responsibility for their successes and, yes, their failures. Here is what I forecast on December 23, 2011 followed by what actually happened and my report card:

Devante Walker and Zack Patton combined to score 43 of Campo Verde’s 69 points to lead the Coyotes to a slim 69-65 overtime victory versus visiting Higley on Thursday.

With cacti and strip malls obstructing the views at times, visitors could easily write Phoenix off as a place where water and culture are scarce. But this metropolis — which includes upscale Scottsdale and college town Tempe — is a nature lover’s oasis with pristine peaks and the vast Sonoran desert.

The early unveiling of this season’s high school boys soccer map isn’t too far removed from most of the past few years’ worth of championship geography.