Skyline and Westwood are in the thick of the Division II softball playoff race and their meeting Wednesday was to stay in contenion in the section race and enhance their standing in the power rankings. Westwood was #18 and Skyline #21 with 24 teams qualifying for state come the end of April.

Skyline got the better of the battle between  Mesa schools, scoring a 6-0 win over Westwood in a D-II Section III contest at Westwood.

Senior pitcher Kaitlyn O'Day rebounded from a tough 3-2 loss Tuesday night at Red Mountain to toss a complete-game shutout. O'Day, who has done the bulk of the pitching in four years for Skyline's varsity, scattered eight hits, walked two and fanned five. Skyline improved to 11-12 overall and 7-4 in power-ranking games. Westwood is the prototype .500 team -- 10-10-1 overall, 5-5 in power-ranking games. Skyline is tied for second in its section with Mesquite (3-1) and both trail section leader Arcadia (5-0). Westwood dropped to 2-2 in the section, but owns a win over Mesquite.

Skyline got its offense rolling in the second inning cranking our four hits and scoring twice. Second baseman Priscilla Figueroa blasted a two-run homer off Westwood starter Nerina Tjaarda. Figueroa's homer scored Maddy Mercer, who began the inning with a single. It was ther first hit of a 4-for-4 day at the plate for Mercer.

Mercer's double with two outs in the third made it 3-0.  Westwood coach Wayne Hill changed pitchers to begin the fourth, summoning Kelsey Ayre. Ayre pitched the final four innings. Her undoing was restricted to one innings and dealt more with wildness (sixth inning) when she surrendered three runs. Ayre walked two and hit a batter. A bases-loaded walk to Madi Roberts and two-out, two-run single by Maya Garcia doubled the lead to 6-0.

O'Day did not have a 1-2-3 inning. Her toughest inning was the first  as she pitched out of a bases-loaded jam. In five of the final six innings she allowed a runner to at least reach second, but was unable to be touched with two outs. It was her second shutout of the season.