Sun Athletes of the Week: Matt Elliot and Keely Commerford

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

MATT ELLIOTT

School: Basic

Class: Sophomore

Sport: Baseball

Family: Father Tim; brother Tim Jr.

Last week: The right-handed Elliott helped the Wolves clinch the Southeast Division title, picking up a save in the team's 7-6 victory over Chaparral on Thursday and tossing a complete game in the club's 9-5 win over Silverado on Friday. Against the Cowboys, he entered the contest with two outs in the seventh and worked out of a bases-loaded jam to help his team hang on. The next day, he limited a potent Skyhawks offense to just four hits, striking out nine batters to lift Basic to a No. 1 seed in this week's Sunrise Region Tournament. "Against Chap, I knew I had to come in and throw strikes," Elliott said. "That got me ready for the next day. Against Silverado, my changeup was working pretty good. I just tried to keep them off-balance."

This season: Elliott, one of Basic's top two starters this spring, finished the regular season with a 7-1 record and one save, a 2.40 ERA and 53 strikeouts and 21 walks in 54 innings pitched. He surrendered just 38 hits this year. "He's a gamer who goes out every day to do a good job for us," Wolves coach Mike Kazek said. Basic is ranked No. 16 in the country by Baseball America, and is among the favorites to win this year's 4A state title. "It's great being ranked and winning the division and everything, but that's behind us now," Elliott said. "Now we've got to strive to win state."

KEELY COMMERFORD

School: Silverado

Class: Junior

Sport: Softball

Family: Father Tim; mother Sally; sister Tina.

Last week: Commerford pitched her way to a 3-0 mark, throwing complete-game shutouts against Mohave (Ariz.) and Chaparral and teaming up with Jackie Kinsey for another shutout against Foothill. Kinsey also tossed two shutouts of her own, giving the Skyhawks a five-shutout week. "It's pretty hard this far in the season to do that," Commerford said. All together, Commerford worked 16.2 innings, scattering eight hits and striking out 22 batters in her three appearances. She also contributed two home runs, a triple and eight RBIs at the plate to help her club seal the Southeast Division title. "The bottom line is that she was one half of a pitching staff that had a tremendous week in clinching the division," Skyhawks coach Chuck Pope said.

This season: Commerford has stepped into the role vacated by graduated ace Tiffany Finateri this year, posting a 12-2 record with a 0.42 ERA, allowing just five earned runs. In 84 innings, she has struck out 84 batters and walked 25, while batting .490 with three homers and 16 RBIs. "She's a hot player at the right time of year," Pope said. "She's really come to the focal point for us." Next week, the five-time defending zone champions will try to earn another berth to the 4A state tournament, where they finished second last year. "Everybody thought it was going to be a rebuilding year for us, but I wasn't worried because we have a lot of good players," Commerford said. "This is exactly how we wanted it to go."