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In the next-to-last Extra Elite 80 national high school rankings of the season, two teams from Texas secured final top five positions by completing historically great state championship runs and the California season ended with about as much drama as possible.
Texas doesn’t often have teams that win state titles in its highest classifications with win-loss records of 41-0 and 32-1, but this year Lake Creek of Montgomery in 5A and O’Connor of Heliotes in 6A did just that.
Texas Juggernauts
Lake Creek, a new school that has only been playing four seasons, capped its 41-0 season last Saturday with a 7-0 win over Georgetown to win its first Class 5A state title. The Lions entered that game No. 1 in the ExtraInningSoftball.com national rankings and will be there when the final rankings are announced in two weeks after all state championships across the country are done.
Ava Brown pitched a one-hitter and struck out eight to lead head coach Michelle Rochinski’s squad. She also had a two-run double to drive in the final two runs of the game. Lake Creek barely had any close games during the season and also finished with a 337-33 margin in all of its games.
Despite all that, it would be inaccurate not to similarly recognize O’Connor as one of the best recent teams from Texas. The Panthers haven’t been able to complete their task of winning the Class 6A state title before, but they got it done last Saturday night with a 7-6 win over Lake Ridge of Mansfield. Their 32-1 record and winning the state title they did has been good enough for a final No. 1 ranking in the nation in many years, but they will be behind the 41-0 of Lake Creek and probably behind an unbeaten team from Indiana (with one game still left) in this season’s final pecking order.
Facing a Lake Ridge squad that had upset defending Class 6A state champ Deer Park in the semifinals, O’Connor had to come back from a 6-5 deficit entering the bottom of the seventh inning. Jada Munoz then tied the game with a solo homer, which led to even more pressure by the Panthers’ offense. The winning run came home when A.J. Sanchez walked with the bases loaded.
Drama in California Championships
The drama at the end was perhaps even more pronounced in the CIF Southern California Division I championship last Saturday between national top 10 teams Roosevelt of Eastvale and Oaks Christian of Westlake Village.
Roosevelt was playing the game at its home field due to winning the CIF Southern Section D1 title and also was trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh to Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, which qualified for SoCal playoffs by getting to the CIFSS D1 semifinals (where it lost 4-0 to Los Alamitos, a team that opted out of the extra week of regional games). The Mustangs were down to their last strike for three straight batters, but stayed alive and loaded the bases on a walk, chopper up the middle for a hit and a hit by pitch. Then on a 3-2 count, Oaks Christian pitcher Micaela Kastor (Notre Dame) got a called third strike to end the game.
Oaks Christian finished up a 34-1 season, but because of the earlier loss was just behind the No. 1 team from Northern California, St. Francis of Mountain View, in the California state rankings. The Lancers also were playing in their regional final at the same time as the Lions and won in their game, 6-0, over CIF Central Section champion Clovis. In their previous game, St. Francis also avenged one of its two losses with a 4-0 victory over Sheldon of Sacramento. Minnesota-bound shortstop Jessica Oakland hit her state-leading 21st homer in the regional semifinals and had a two-run double against Clovis.
Still To Be Decided
With the Texas and California seasons complete, the only two top 10 teams from this week’s rankings still with games left are No. 2 Roncalli of Indiana and No. 6 Ballard of Kentucky. Roncalli (32-0) is playing Harrison of North Lafayette (28-1) on Saturday in the Indiana Class 4A state championship. Ballard (36-0) will be playing in the Kentucky state tournament in the quarterfinals on Friday and could play South Warren of Bowling Green (37-2) in the semifinals. Two other teams with just two losses also still going in Kentucky (which doesn’t have divisions) are at McCracken County of Paducah (33-2) and Henderson County of Henderson (33-2).
— Mark Tennis, contributor to Extra Inning Softball
*****
After results of Tuesday, June 7)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
*Indicates season not yet complete.
**Indicates forfeit wins/losses not included.
1. (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 41-0
2. (2) Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) 32-0*
3. (4) O’Connor (Heliotes, Texas) 32-1
4. (3) Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.) 30-2
5. (5) St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) 31-2
6. (9) Ballard (Louisville, Ky.) 36-0*
7. (11) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, Calif.) 34-1
8. (8) Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.) 32-2
9. (6) Roosevelt (Eastvale, Calif.) 28-4
10. (10) Lexington (Lexington, Tenn.) 51-1
*** Scroll down to see the rest of the Top 50 plus the Next 30 and the teams that dropped out…