The second regular season installment of the Extra Elite Elite 80 national high school softball rankings sees a bump for the winner of one of the nation’s top tournaments, more upheaval in Florida and more states underway with games but with many more teams from cold-weather states still waiting to get going.
The Norco High program in California is no stranger to being near the top of the national rankings and the Cougars cemented their status as one of the nation’s top teams for 2023 when they won the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions title two weekends ago in Bullhead City, Ariz.
The Cougars won their record fifth TOC title and moved to 11-0 on the season with a 13-8 victory over Los Alamitos (Calif.) in the championship game. Norco trailed 8-5 in the fifth inning, but came back behind Riley Potter’s grand slam homer in the sixth inning. Kimberly Neal also was key for pitching 3 ⅓ scoreless innings. Mya Perez also hit her sixth homer of the season earlier in the title game.
Previous Extra Inning Elite No. 3 Murrieta Mesa (Calif.) and No. 6 Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.) also were in the TOC field. Norco defeated Hamilton of Chandler, Ariz., 6-3, in the semifinals after Hamilton had a win earlier in the weekend over Salpointe. Murrieta Mesa’s only loss came by one run to another California school, Pacifica of Garden Grove, on a controversial runner’s interference call. Norco moved up from No. 8 to No. 3 in this week’s rankings and didn’t play last week.
Florida already had a big shake up in its rankings with preseason ranked Lakewood Ranch losing twice before the first regular season national rankings were compiled. The dust continued to settle in the two weeks since the last Extra Inning Elite 80 was published.
Teams that either lost twice or lost to a team they now have to be ranked behind included previous No. 9 Bartow, No. 11 Doral Academy and No. 50 Eustus. Previous No. 49 Wellington also lost, but the team it lost to, Coral Springs Charter, was one of the other Florida teams that came up this week.
Opinions vary on which Florida team should be moved up the most, but for us the nod went to new No. 11 Calvary Christian of Clearwater.
The Warriors have stepped up their schedule after winning the Class 3A state title last season. They did lose in their first game to Auburndale but have to go up with nine wins since then, including the championship of last week’s BayMade Invitational. Calvary Christian topped Berkeley Prep of Tampa, 9-4, to win the tourney title. Ava Planeta had a multi-hit game with four RBI. Reagan Lavina and Irianis Garcia also had multi-hit, multi-RBI games.
Berkeley Prep was a team that downed Lake Region of Eagle Lake, Fla., and Lake Region was the team that knocked off Bartow. Calvary Christian also has wins this season over previously ranked Parrish Community and new No. 27 Lake Brantley (Altamonte Springs).
Calvary Christian junior Morgen Talley, who is ranked among the top Class of 2025 players in the nation according to the Extra Inning Elite 100, had a memorable night in the team’s 9-2 win over Steinbrenner of Lutz, Fla., in the BayMade tourney semifinals. All she did was crush three home runs and collect seven RBI.
Preseason No. 2 and national championship contender Roncalli of Indianapolis doesn’t show any games on its schedule yet until April 4. There are some states in the Midwest and South, however, that have seen high school softball teams get in some games.
Teams from the following states have begun playing within the last week: Arkansas, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington.
Here are the states with ranked teams that will begin playing by the end of this week: Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas.
In addition to Indiana, other states with at least one team ranked still to come will include Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin.
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2023 Extra Elite Eighty Rankings
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
(Through reported games of Monday, March 21)
- (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 24-0
- (2) Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) 0-0
- (8) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 11-0
- (4) Ballard (Louisville, Ky.) 0-0
- (7) Lake Ridge (Mansfield, Texas) 20-0
- (26) Pace (Pace, Fla.) 13-0
- (17) St. Amant (St. Amant, La.) 21-1
- (19) Los Alamitos (Los Alamitos, Calif.) 7-2
- (5) Clovis North (Fresno, Calif.) 10-0-1
- (10) Anthony Wayne (Whitehouse, Ohio) 0-0
*** Scroll down to see the rest of the 2023 Extra Elite Eighty Preseason teams!
