The top four teams from the first-ever Line Drive Softball national high school rankings are in the same spots in this week’s second edition.

This is despite one of the teams, No. 2 Orange Beach of Alabama, suffering its first loss of the season. In case you don’t know, Alabama teams play more games by a big margin than almost all teams from every state so losing one game out of nearly 50 doesn’t matter that much as long as it’s not in the playoffs. Orange Beach’s loss since the first rankings was to Hazel Green.

The other reason the Makos did not drop is that they also won a massive game last week, 2-0, over Pace of Pace, Fla., which has been No. 1 in Florida’s Class 6A rankings and came into that matchup at No. 5 nationally. South Carolina-bound Kaylee Grace Favors pitched a two-hitter with 16 strikeouts and did just enough to out-duel LSU-bound Jayden Heavener of Pace, who also struck out 16.

No. 1 Melbourne of Florida is into its district playoffs still unbeaten with four straight shutouts. No. 3 St. Francis of Mountain View (Calif.) still has one week to go in its regular season and then will be looking to finish unbeaten with CIF Central Coast Section and CIF Northern California championships.

No. 4 Katy of Texas, which is No. 1 in other national rankings, has begun the Class 6A state playoffs with a two-game sweep of Dulles (Fort Bend) and is playing Cesar Chavez (Houston) in the next round. Keep in mind that in the Texas playoffs it is possible to lose a game and still advance since in some of the rounds they are a best-of-three series.

There already is one state that completed its championships before the month of April was over and that once again is Louisiana. There appears to be a debate about which team – Sterlington (33-1) or Calvary Baptist Academy (35-2) – should be highest ranked.

Sterlington won the D3 Non-Select state title with a 1-0 win over Doyle. McNeese State-bound Maddie Taylor pitched the shutout and also ended the season with 10 homers and a .463 batting average. The only loss for head coach Brian West’s team was to North DeSoto, which is a team the Panthers also defeated.

We have Sterlington higher, but Calvary Baptist Academy of Shreveport is not far behind. The Cavaliers won their fourth straight state title (D3 Select) with a 10-9 victory over Houma Christian of Houma. They have seventh and eighth graders in the starting lineup, but senior Ramsey Walker had a homer, double and three RBI to lead the way in the final game.

— Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports & Line Drive Softball correspondent

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(Through reported results of Tuesday, April 30)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)

*Indicates season complete.

1. (1) Melbourne (Melbourne, Fla.) 26-0
2. (2) Orange Beach (Orange Beach, Ala.) 39-1
3. (3) St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) 20-0
4. (4) Katy (Katy, Texas) 34-1-1
5. (7) Bartow (Bartow, Fla.) 21-1
6. (9) Watkins Memorial (Patalaskala, Ohio) 22-0
7. (8) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 23-3
8. (12) Lutheran (Orange, Calif.) 18-3
9. (10) Forney (Forney, Texas) 32-1-2
10. (13) Doral Academy (Doral, Fla.) 22-1

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Line Drive Softball Members… scroll down to see the rest of the Top 50 plus 20 more teams on the bubble and those who dropped out …