While we don’t agree at all with the notion among some softball coaches in the CIF Southern Section of California that whichever team wins the CIFSS Division I title then that team should automatically be ranked No. 1 in the nation, there’s no doubt that the D1 title in that section is the toughest and most difficult to win among any playoff bracket in the nation.

California will have a CIF state championship in the coming years, but until then there are two regional titles to win (north and south) except that many of the best CIFSS D1 teams, such as title squad Pacifica of Garden Grove last season, opt out of the regional playoffs.

The toughness and difficulty of the CIFSS D1 playoffs was on full display during Tuesday’s second round.

Two of the nation’s most successful programs, Norco and Los Alamitos, led by two of the best softball coaches in California history, Rick Robinson of the Cougars and Rob Weil of the Griffins, both had their seasons end with upset losses. Norco lost 3-1 to Great Oak of Temecula while Los Al fell 5-1 to Oaks Christian of Westlake Village.

Since the Line Drive Softball Super 70 is compiled after Tuesday results are in, both Norco and Los Alamitos had to drop all the way out of the first 50 in this week’s rankings. 

Teams losing in somewhat meaningless late regular season games and not in a playoff that ends the season don’t have to drop far in the rankings since those teams can still come back to win major titles.

An example of that would be Watkins Memorial of Ohio, which lost its first game last week but is still 25-1 overall and can still win the Ohio D1 state title. In this week’s rankings, the Warriors dropped from No. 6 to No. 13.

There were no state titles decided in the last week since the last rankings after Louisiana completed its playoffs the previous week. 

One state that got close to finishing up is Arizona, which uses a double-elimination format in its playoffs. The 6A bracket is the big one and in that one both previous No. 24 Basha of Glendale and No. 38 Red Mountain of Mesa have lost twice and have been eliminated.

The two teams sitting in semifinal spots still waiting for an opponent to win and get in as of Tuesday night were Queen Creek and Xavier Prep. Nationally ranked Canyon del Oro of Tucson is in the 4A bracket and is still going strong heading into a Thursday matchup with Eastmark of Mesa.

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

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(Through reported results of Tuesday, May 7, 2024)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)

*Indicates season complete.

1. (1) Melbourne (Melbourne, Fla.) 27-0
2. (2) Orange Beach (Orange Beach, Ala.) 42-1
3. (3) St. Francis (Mountain View, Calif.) 22-0
4. (4) Katy (Katy, Texas) 36-1-1
5. (5) Bartow (Bartow, Fla.) 26-1
6. (8) Lutheran (Orange, Calif.) 19-3
7. (11) Pacifica (Garden Grove, Calif.) 24-2
8. (12) Lake Central (St. John, Ind.) 26-0
9. (10) Doral Academy (Doral, Fla.) 23-1
10. (9) Forney (Forney, Texas) 34-1-3

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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 …