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While the top-ranked teams in Texas have been in cruise control in their district games in recent weeks, many of the best in California happen to be in the same leagues and there were some mid-week results this week in two of those leagues that created a lot of changes in this week’s Extra Elite 80 national rankings.
Perhaps the toughest league in California this season – and usually among the best every season – is the Sunset League of the CIF Southern Section. Tuesday of this week featured state No. 1 Los Alamitos (also No. 5 in last week’s national rankings) going up against state No. 4 Huntington Beach (which already was going to be moving up a bunch this week after it won the Best of the West tournament in Santa Maria last weekend over previous Extra Elite No. 14 Oaks Christian).
Huntington Beach won the showdown contest, 3-2, behind the pitching of junior Zoe Prystajko (Stanford commit) and the hitting of Liah Lummus. Prystajko struck out 15 batters in a four-hitter while Lummus smashed a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning and also had a two-run double earlier in the game.
Los Alamitos had won 12-3 over Huntington Beach in the title game of the Michelle Carew Classic earlier this month. But now that the Oilers have won in league, combined with their win over Oaks Christian (which was undefeated) and a 1-0 win over Norco at the Carew Classic, they would now move up into the No. 1 position for teams in Southern California.
Does this mean that the team that was No. 2 in California last week, St. Francis of Mountain View, should now be considered No. 1 in the state? Nope.
The Lancers themselves were defeated on Wednesday of this week, 3-2, by their West Catholic Athletic League rivals from Archbishop Mitty of San Jose. The results snapped an eight-game win streak by St. Francis over Mitty, but the Monarchs (13-2) still can’t be ranked higher than the Lancers. They did jump up to No. 36 in the Extra Elite 80 and also will now be back in the top 10 for the state.
Freshman Kyleigh Maze pitched a six-hitter and got some key outs to pace Mitty’s big win. The game-winning RBI in the bottom of the sixth inning came on a line drive by Oklahoma commit Corri Hicks.
The team that would now be considered No. 1 California and moving up to No. 5 this week in the nation is Clovis North of Fresno. The Broncos also had a league showdown earlier this week, but in their case they got past Clovis High, 3-2. Arizona-bound Ryan Maddox struck out 13 batters and gave up no earned runs. Freshman Zoey Thomas also had a big day for head coach Courtney Dale’s team as she went 3-for-3 with a home run.
Other than Archbishop Mitty, this week’s biggest newcomer in the Extra Elite 80 is Melbourne, Florida. The Bulldogs avenged one of their losses last week with a 2-0 victory over Lake Brantley of Altamonte Springs. Junior pitcher Jasmine Francik tossed a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts to hold down the Patriots. Sophomore Baylea Holland also went 2-for-3 with one RBI.
The regular season in several states, including Texas, Arizona and Louisiana, will be ending either this weekend or early next week. By the time the next edition of these rankings are done, state playoff pairings in those states hopefully will be out.
—Â Mark Tennis
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2023 Extra Elite Eighty Rankings
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
(Through reported games of Wednesday, April 19)
(*Indicates forfeit wins, losses not included)
Top 10
1. (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 32-0
2. (2) Lake Ridge (Mansfield, Texas) 31-0
3. (3) Pace (Pace, Fla.) 19-0
4. (4) Ballard (Louisville, Ky.) 14-0
5. (7) Clovis North (Fresno, Calif.) 18-0-1
6. (8) Guyer (Denton, Texas) 27-0
7. (11) Coral Springs Charter (Coral Springs, Fla.) 16-0-2
8. (9) Willow Canyon (Surprise, Ariz.) 24-0-1
9. (29) Huntington Beach (Huntington Beach, Calif.) 19-4*
10. (15) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 22-2
*** Scroll down to see the rest of the 2023 Extra Elite Eighty Preseason teams!