An inch here or there and they still might be playing. Catalina Foothills and Poston Butte in Division III softball. But the inch umpires saw was on the fair side as No. 7 Catalina Foothills pushed across the tie-breaking and winning run in the top of the sixth and nipped No. 2 Poston Butte, 2-1, in a quarterfinal game at Rose Mofford Softball Complex.

Catalina Foothills (24-10) continues the Tucson area's assault on softball titles this spring. The Falcons advance to one of Saturday's six 10 a.m. semifinals against River Valley, also a come-from-behind, 2-1 winner in its game over Bourgade Catholic. All the D-III, D-IV and D-V semis will be played at Rose Mofford. Ironwood Ridge, Tucson High and Sahuaro are unbeaten and deep in the D-II tourney. Canyon del Oro and Salpointe are still alive in D-II. Pueblo reached the semis of the D-IV tourney with an 8-1 win over Yuma Catholic. Poston Butte finished its season a glossy 26-5-1.

CFH  ninth-place hitter Kaitlyn Lucio slapped a a sharp ground ball that nipped the chalk down the third-baseline for a single that plated off reliever Lindsay Lopez to score courtesy runner Katie Russel. Russell ran for catcher Lilli  Wright, who doubled to open the inning off starter Taylor Strupp. Lucio was stranded at third ending the inning, but that gave left-hander Falcons' ace Nic Conway the wiggle room needed to finish out a strong, complete game effort. Conway entered the game with 265 Ks in 178 innings.

Conway surrendered an unearned run in the first inning. She allowed only three hits and her ability to fan opposing hitters gained steam as the game progressed. Conway struck out two in the first three innings. She finished with nine Ks, including fanning the side in the bottom of the seventh.

Poston Butte took the lead in the first thanks to a one-out fielding error followed by a smoked double to left by Megan Clark. Poston Butte left Clark stranded at third. Catalina Foothills tied the game in the top of the third on Marisa Garcia's infield single. Both teams left runners in scoring position in several innings. There were only two 1-2-3 innings by each team. CFH outhit Poston Butte, 9-3.  Strupp pitched well in defeat for Poston Butte. She survived a four-hit, third inning allowing the Falcons a single run. Micayla Brooke, Conway and Wright had two hits apiece.

In the other D-III quarterfinals, No. 3 River Valley edged No. 11 Bourgade thanks to  Regan Glenn's RBI infield hit in the bottom of the sixth. That capped a two-run rally by the Dust Devils. Glenn was the winning pitcher as well. Top-seed Cibola run-ruled No. 24 Nogales, 11-1, in six innings. Nadi Hernandez pitched a three-hitter and knocked in three runs for the Raiders. Ela Henry, Nicole Villa and Madison Sierra combined for seven more RBI. Sierra homered. No. 5 Payson dropped No. 4 Snowflake, 6-3, in the late game.  

D-IV

PUEBLO 8, YUMA CATHOLIC 1: A barrage of extra-base hits in the third inning accounted for three quick runs as the fifth-seeded Warriors routed the fourth-seeded Shamrocks. Sierra Gaskill;s triple, Alizea Corday's double and Vanessa Duarte's home run pushed Pueblo's lead to 4-0. They added a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh. Pueblo cranked out 15 hits to back the 11-strike-out pitching of Nickole Robles. Seven of Pueblo's nine starters had two hits apiece. Corday drove in three runs and Duarte two.

Pueblo faces No. 1 seed Benson, an 8-3 winner over Amphitheater in one of Saturday's D-IV semifinals.  The other D-IV semi pits No. 11 Morenci against No. 2 Camp Verde. Morenci hammered San Manuel, 13-1, and Camp Verde clobbered Buckeye, 12-5.