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There has already been much written about Lake Creek of Montgomery, Texas winning the Class 5A state title last weekend with an 8-0 win over Canyon of New Braunfels.
Click HEREÂ for our report.
Among the accolades for the team that is going to finish wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in the Extra Inning Elite 80 national rankings is their 84-1 record over the last two seasons of back-to-back state titles and back-to-back No. 1 national rankings, a 396-55 run differential and Florida-bound Ava Brown pitching a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts in her final game wearing a Lions’ uniform.
But it wasn’t like the Canyon High team that Lake Creek rolled in the final game didn’t have something to play for, either. Since the Cougars won earlier in the week in their Class 5A state semifinal game, 2-0, over Colleyville Heritage, if by some way they had been able to pull off the upset they would have finished unbeaten at 34-0 and it would have been them and not Lake Creek that would be No. 1 in the nation.
Nothing like that came close to happening as head coach Michelle Rochinski’s powerhouse program rolled to the easy win in the final.
There was a more surprising team that won out, however, in the other major Texas state division and that was Pearland in 6A. That’s a program that has had success in the past with state titles in 1996, 2009, 2010 and a second-place finish in 2016 and came through this time with a 4-2 win the Class 6A final over a Guyer of Denton squad that came in with a sterling 38-1 mark.
Texas A&M-bound Hailey Golden led the Lady Oilers to their come-from-behind win over Guyer as she went 3-for-4 with two RBI and was named MVP of the contest. Pearland jumped up from No. 34 to No. 9 in this week’s rankings and at 41-3 might move up another spot or two for the final rankings.
One of Golden’s future teammates at A&M, pitcher Kate Munnerlyn, a junior at St. Francis of Mountain View (Calif.), almost led her team to a major win last weekend as well. Munnerlyn pitched eight shutout innings in the CIF Northern California Division I title game, but Hollister scored once in the bottom of the ninth on an error and topped St. Francis, 1-0.
St. Francis, the No. 1 team in California last season, was looking to repeat as NorCal D1 champions, but also lost to Hollister, 4-0, in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division finals the previous week. Both teams had won twice earlier last week to set up their winner-take-all final.
Hollister, which had avenged two of its three losses in the CCS playoffs (the other besides one to St. Francis was against Archbishop Mitty of San Jose), was named State Team of the Year on Monday by Cal-Hi Sports (which has selected state teams of the year in California for nearly 40 years). The Haybalers were selected ahead of CIF Southern Section D1 champion Pacifica of Garden Grove, which opted out of the CIF regional playoffs but had eight losses overall on the season.
Another team making a big move this week was Ohio Division I state champion Austintown-Fitch of Youngstown, Ohio. The Falcons had two ties during the season and were not ranked ahead of other Ohio teams like Watkins of Palaskala (which was 28-1-1 when it lost to Anthony Wayne of Whitehouse in the D1 state semifinals) and unbeaten Springfield Holland.
After defeating Anthony Wayne, 6-1, in last weekend’s state final, however, Austintown-Fitch and its 22-0-2 final record has the team up to No. 25 from No. 44 in this week’s rankings. Sydnie Watts struck out 12 to get the pitching win while Kylie Folkwein had two RBI and Ayla Ray homered to lead the way for the Falcons.
Highly ranked teams still looking to complete their seasons with a state title include No. 2 Ballard of Kentucky (playing Rowan County on Friday in state semis); No. 3 Marist of Illinois (playing Barrington on Friday in Class 4A state semis); and No. 5 Roncalli of Indiana (playing Penn of Mishiwaka on Saturday in Class 4A state championship).
The next Extra Elite 80 rankings will be the final ones of the season and will be done after all state finals everywhere are completed in two weeks.
*****
(After games of Wednesday, June 7)
(Previous rank in parentheses)
*Indicates season NOT done for season.
TOP 10
1. (1) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 44-1
2. (3) Ballard (Louisville, Ky.) 34-1*
3. (5) Marist (Chicago, Ill.) 35-2*
4. (6) Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.) 35-1
5. (7) Roncalli (Indianapolis, Ind.) 31-3-1*
6. (9) Hollister (Hollister, Calif.) 30-3
7. (2) Canyon (New Braunfels, Texas) 33-1
8. (17) Bartow (Bartow, Fla.) 29-3
9. (34) Pearland (Pearland, Texas) 41-3
10. (10) Basha (Chandler, Ariz.) 27-4-1
*** Scroll down to see the rest of the 2023 Extra Elite 80 teams!
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