7️⃣

JJ Redick and James Borrego are two of the top candidates to monitor for the Lakers’ head coaching vacancy, per Adrian Wojnarowski.

Los Angeles is “drilling down” doing a lot of vetting on the potential upside of Redick becoming their next coach.

Ooof. 12-hour day over. I've got a huge state T&F field story coming in the AJ -- biggest regret: couldn't get to every great athlete performance I wanted to -- and I also wrote a big prep baseball recap.

Also, Sean Reider has the state team tennis action from Saturday.

Eldorado baseball is into the 5A baseball quarters, Eagles came back to beat Rio Grande 8-3 in game 2 today, and swept that series.

Eldo scored 7 times in the sixth.

La Cueva-Eldorado in the quarters on Thursday.

Bernalillo has just beaten Hope Christian 8-3 in Game 3 of that first round baseball series.

Spartans, seeded 10th, won two games today.

Hang on. LL coach Paul Cieremans said 4pm Monday is NOT definite. Will update when I can.

This is per VV AD Ron McMath.

More state baseball news:

Game 3 between Los Lunas and Volcano Vista ppd. (Rain/field conditions) until Monday at 4. They never started the game. LL won Game 2 of the series earlier today.

Interesting situation between Los Alamos and Albuquerque Academy. They were in the top of the 7th, AA leading 4-2, LA with bases chucked and one out. Then rain forced a stoppage.

They are going to resume Monday at 2pm at the Academy. Chargers already won Game 1 on Friday.

I’m at state track all day, but will be writing about baseball later.

La Cueva, Rio Rancho, Cleveland all won game 2s today and moved into the 5A quarters. Belen and St. Pius from 4A as well.

LL-VV and Hope-Bernalillo in third (and deciding) games as we speak.

8️⃣

Word to the wise: if you're going to the UNM track complex in the morning, be forewarned that the UNM graduation ceremony is at the Pit at 9 a.m., and I can tell you from experience, traffic surrounding UNM graduation is a damn nightmare. Plus parking may be scarce.

On Saturday we’ll have a ton of prep coverage. State track, state baseball (a little softball) and state team tennis. Actually Saturday is going to be probably the most busy day for me either this week or next.

I've got a big Day 1 state track and field story; I'll be back out on Saturday for a long Day 2.

Also tonight, we've got a roundup of the first day of big-school baseball and softball playoff action.

I'll be writing more expansively on baseball on Saturday, elimination day.

9️⃣

(Very late with this one tonight.)

Eldorado, surging, handled Rio Grande pretty easily tonight, 9-1, as the ninth-seeded Eagles won Game 1 of that series over the eighth-seeded Ravens.

Saturday will sadly be the final day of grass baseball at RGHS. New turf field going in after the season.

4A baseball had much closer games today. No. 2 Grants won 4-3 over Portales. No. 7 Hope Christian edged No. 10 Bernalillo 6-5. No. 8 Bloomfield held off No. 9 Valley, 9-6.

No. 3 Belen, No. 4 St. Pius, No. 6 ABQ Academy won more comfortably.

No major upsets on Day 1 of 5A baseball.

No. 1 La Cueva, No. 2 Rio Rancho, No. 3 Cleveland, No. 5 Sandia, No. 6 Volcano Vista. None of them threatened in Game 1 of the best-of-3.

8-9 Rio Grande/Eldorado going on tonight.

Game 2s and, if needed, Game 3s, on Saturday.

Calling it a work night, boys and girls. I am with the small school state track meet all day Friday and Saturday at UNM.

But we will also be all over state baseball and softball, both Friday and Saturday. Rest is for the weak. I think. 😜

Vivica Corley of Eldorado just completed an epic, 3-hour, 25-minute, three-set victory (7-6 in the third set) over La Cueva’s Cameron King in the girls 5A final here at Jerry Cline. I caught up with Vivica …