Metro Baseball and Softball Brackets Set; Eldorado's Corley Twins Sweep Top Girls Singles at APS Tournament

Albuquerque Public Schools released the brackets on Monday for next week's Albuquerque Metro Baseball and Softball Championships. Both tournaments build toward title games on Saturday, March 23.

The baseball tournament opens next Tuesday at home sites. La Cueva anchors the top half of the draw and will start against Albuquerque High. The other top-half games send St. Pius to Rio Grande, Valley to Volcano Vista and Hope Christian to Cleveland.

Sandia leads the bottom half and will host Atrisco Heritage in the first round. The remaining games there are Manzano at Rio Rancho, Los Lunas at Eldorado and Albuquerque Academy at Cibola. First-round and quarterfinal games begin at 3:30 p.m. The quarterfinals are set for March 19, and the semifinals follow two days later, also at 3:30 p.m. The metro final is at 10 a.m. on March 23. The schedule is a demanding one.

The softball tournament moves to the revamped Los Altos complex in the Northeast Heights, near Eubank and Lomas. The 16-team event runs from next Wednesday through Saturday.

La Cueva is the early No. 1 team in the MaxPreps.com rankings after a strong showing at a large national tournament in Phoenix, and the Bears will face Del Norte in their opener. Other top-half first-round games, all at 3 p.m., are Eldorado versus Cleveland, Los Alamos versus Cibola and Valley versus Albuquerque High.

The bottom half begins at 5 p.m. with Rio Rancho against West Mesa, Sandia against Rio Grande, Manzano against Volcano Vista, and St. Pius, the early No. 1 in 4A, against Atrisco Heritage. Quarterfinals on March 21 are at 3 and 5 p.m., and the semifinals on March 22 use the same times. The championship game is at noon on March 23.

In tennis, Albuquerque High's Leo Rocca and Eldorado's Vianca Corley won No. 1 singles titles on Saturday at the APS Singles tournament at the Jerry Cline complex. Rocca beat La Cueva's Jaime Moran 6-1, 6-1 in the final and lost only three games across his three victories. Mitchell Rocca of Albuquerque High took No. 2 singles. La Cueva players won the other four boys brackets: Luke Gordon at No. 3, Thaaj Bhardwaj at No. 4, Jon Holloway at No. 5 and Linus Wang at No. 6.

Eldorado's Corley twins, both juniors, won the top two girls brackets. Vianca Corley came from behind to beat La Cueva's Cameron King 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1. Vivica Corley won at No. 2 by defeating La Cueva's Varinn Sood 6-1, 6-3, and those were the only games she dropped in the tournament. La Cueva players swept the 3-6 girls brackets: Chase Holloway, Alexis Spindler, Ariela Arrellin and Luz De Avila.

Elsewhere, the unbeaten La Cueva baseball team is competing this week in The Boras Classic in the Phoenix area, which runs Wednesday through Saturday and is named for the sports agent Scott Boras. Eldorado wide receiver Josiah Mitchell has committed to New Mexico Highlands, and St. Pius guard Alyssa Maes will play women's basketball at the same school.