Extra Elite 80 High School Softball Team Rankings: Playoffs Continue with Many Favorites Advancing… & Some Done for the Year! (May 11, 2022)

High school softball playoffs in some states are like a slow burn, in which many teams might only play once per week for several weeks leading into a final four in some brackets or a state championship round that is played in early June.

In other places, it’s more like lighting. There are playoff games two and sometimes three times per week where the upsets can pile up on top of each other.

Extra Elite 80 national No. 1 Lake Creek of Montgomery, Texas, is in one of the slow burn states. The Lions just played once since last week’s rankings and defeated Weiss of Pflugerville, 11-0, in the Class 5A state playoffs. They meet 28-9 Waller in this week’s regional quarterfinals in what will be a best-of-three series.

California is where it’s more like a lightning round. This year’s first-ever Northern California and Southern California regional playoffs, for example, will get done in five days with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals from May 31 to June 4.

The nation’s toughest bracket, which is the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, will eventually provide teams into that first-ever regional bracket, but teams have to survive the early rounds to get there and there already is one prominent team that has fallen.

In Tuesday’s second round of those playoffs, Extra Elite 80 No. 16 Villa Park was topped 2-1 in 11 innings by Lutheran of Orange. One of the nation’s top freshmen, Kai Minor, drove a ball into the gap off of Arizona-bound Sydney Somerndike that went for a triple and then she came home for the winning run after the ball got past the Villa Park third baseman for an error. Villa Park, which won the Dave Kops TOC this year and was No. 1 in the nation for several weeks until Somerndike suffered an ankle injury, is now finished for the season.

National No. 2 Oaks Christian also is in the CIFSS D1 playoffs and won in Tuesday’s second round, 13-3, over Chino Hills and plays in the quarterfinals on Thursday vs. national No. 15 Murrieta Mesa, which eliminated perennial power Norco in the second round, 12-8.

Deer Park of Texas suffered a playoff loss last week as well, but it came in what was a best-of-three series against Alvin. The team won the series two games to one and will now face No. 23 Brazoswood (Clute, Texas) in the Class 6A regional quarterfinals. Deer Park, which is the defending champion in that bracket, only fell three spots in this week’s rankings for losing a game in that situation. The possibility of the Deer being back-to-back Texas Class 6A state champions is still very much alive.

— Mark Tennis, contributor to Extra Inning Softball

*****

(After games of Tuesday, May 10)
(Previous rank in parentheses)

* Indicates forfeits not included
** Indicates season complete

1. (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 33-0
2. (2) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, Calif.) 30-0
3. (3) Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) 20-0*
4. (6) Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.) 25-2
5. (5) O’Connor (Heliotes, Texas) 26-1
6. (8) Fairhope (Fairhope, Ala.) 38-2-1
7. (4) Deer Park (Deer Park, Texas) 35-3
8. (11) St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) 23-2
9. (12) Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.) 30-2
10. (10) Oxbridge Academy (West Palm Beach, Fla.) 20-1-1

*** Scroll down to see the rest of the Top 50 plus the Next 30 and the teams that dropped out…

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