RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
These Extra Elite 80 national rankings this season have included Tuesday results every week, but not Wednesday, which is important this week since the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 teams all have Wednesday games.
No. 1 Lake Creek is taking on Santa Fe (Santa Fe, Texas) in the Texas Class 5A regional finals. The unbeaten Lions have to be beaten twice in a best-of-three series for them to be denied the opportunity of moving on, but even one loss at this point would move up at least a couple of other teams.
No. 2 Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) is facing New Palestine (Ind.) as a heavy favorite on Wednesday in the Class 4A sectional championships. The state regionals will be next week.
No. 3 Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.) is in the Final Four of the Florida state championships and is playing in a Class 7A semifinal on Wednesday vs. Western (Davie, Fla.). The Mustangs could play Lake Brantley (Altamonte Springs) in this weekend’s state final. That is the team that handed them two losses during a bad week that dropped them from the national No. 1 ranking at the time. They’ve been outstanding every week since then.
No. 5 St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) is playing Aragon (San Mateo, Calif.) in the CIF Central Coast Section D1 semifinals on Wednesday. In the CCS, as in most other California sections, both the champion and runner-up in the top divisions are going to play in next week’s first-ever CIF Northern California and Southern California regional championships.
Losing in a semifinal ends the season, which is what previous No. 46 Livermore (Calif.) found out on Tuesday when it lost in the CIF North Coast Section D2 semifinals to Marin Catholic (Kentfield, Calif.). It’s still unknown how many of the California teams will opt out of those regional playoffs with the travel ball season beginning on the same weekend. CIF Southern Section D1 runner-up Los Alamitos already has opted out.
Another big result from Tuesday was previous No. 10 Oxbridge Academy (West Palm Beach, Fla.) going down in an upset in the Florida Class 2A state semifinals to University Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.).
MORE STATE TITLES
Two teams that won state titles last weekend were No. 16 Benton (Arkansas) and No. 26 Thompson (Alabaster, Ala.).
Head coach Heidi Cox’s girls from Benton won their second straight Class 5A state title, but it was a weird one as the Panthers were trailing 2-1 on Saturday when their game with Greene County Tech (Paragould, Ark.) had to be halted due to severe weather. They had to come back the next day to pull out a 3-2 win.
Thompson came through to win the Class 7A state championship in Alabama over a field that included previous No. 5 Fairhope, which was 40-2-1 entering the week, and defending champion Hewitt-Trussville. Fairhope’s hopes ended with losses to Hewitt-Trussville and Hoover. The Warriors had to beat Hewitt-Trussville twice and they did. In the title game, Chalea Clemmons pitched a two-hitter in a 2-0 win that gave Thompson its first state title in 23 years.
— Mark Tennis, contributor to Extra Inning Softball
*****
After results of Tuesday, May 24)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
*Indicates season complete.
**Indicates forfeits not included in record.
***Indicates forfeits not included & season complete.
1. (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 37-0
2. (2) Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) 27-0
3. (3) Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.) 28-2
4. (4) O’Connor (Heliotes, Texas) 28-1
5. (6) St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) 26-2
6. (9) Roosevelt (Eastvale, Calif.) 27-3
7. (7) Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.) 32-2*
8. (12) Deer Park (Deer Park, Texas) 38-4
9. (26) Lake Brantley (Altamonte Springs, Fla.) 24-4
10. (15) Ballard (Louisville, Ky.) 32-0
*** Scroll down to see the rest of the Top 50 plus the Next 30 and the teams that dropped out…