Top High School Tourney in Florida Won by Alabama Team… Now No. 1

When the first of our rankings for the 2025 season came out last month, a huge showdown in Florida between unbeaten teams Doral Academy and Montverde Academy was about to take place and it was said would produce a very solid No. 1 team for the nation.

Doral won that game, 10-0, but the Firebirds are not the No. 1 team this week as the busy time for national softball rankings is about to begin in early April. They lost in the semifinals last week at the Roger Jones Kissimee Klassic in Florida to Orange Beach, Alabama, which was the 46-1 national champion from last season.

Orange Beach then faced Montverde Academy in the final and edged that team, 3-2, in eight innings to win the prestigious tourney title.

The good news for the Makos then continued on Tuesday of this week as they blanked Spanish Fort back in Alabama, 4-0. That avenged the team’s only loss, which was 6-5 in the very first game of the season.

Down to the Final 4!

🥎 vs Doral Academy
⏰ 1:00pm ET
📍Fortune Rd Athletic Complex, Kissimmee, FL@MaxPreps @GCMSportsAL @cityorangebeach @MakoAthletics @ExtraInningSB @KlassicSoftball pic.twitter.com/SrxCb8j1fP

— Orange Beach Softball (@oba_softball) April 5, 2025

The team was scheduled to play a tough opponent on Wednesday of this week as well with a matchup vs longtime Kentucky power McCracken County.

For taking on the challenge of playing the top Florida teams at the Kissimee Klassic and winning plus avenging its only loss, Orange Beach had to move back to the No. 1 position for the Line Drive Softball Super 70.

Previous No. 1 Doral has only dropped to third behind unbeaten Melissa of Texas at No. 2 since it won in the earlier meeting with Montverde Academy and has just the one loss to Orange Beach.

The Makos scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning to get the win over Montverde in the Kissimee Klassic final after the Eagles had scored in the top of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Freshman K.K. McMullen pitched 7 ⅔ innings with senior K.G. Favors getting the final out in the eighth.

In the 7-2 semifinal victory vs Doral, Favors pitched a five-hitter and struck out six. Ava Hodo also came through by going 4-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI.

*****

Surprising Winner at Michelle Carew Classic in Cali

The other major tourney from a national perspective last week was the Michelle Carew Classic in Anaheim, Calif. That ended up producing a surprising winner as Rosary of Fullerton took the title with an 8-4 victory in the title game over Lutheran of Orange. Pitcher

Ava Phillips of the Royals was named MVP.

She was also named on Tuesday as this week’s Line Driver Softball National High School Player of the Week:

I am feeling very grateful today! Thank you @BrenttEads @los_stuff and the entire @LineDsoftball staff for selecting me as the National High School Player of the Week among such an amazing group of athletes!

Congratulations to all the athletes named in the article!!

It’s been… pic.twitter.com/695xYV7KLG

— Ava Phillips (@AvaPhillips2027) April 10, 2025

Rosary was not even the top-ranked team from the city of Fullerton entering the week but has jumped to No. 2 in California after the tourney title.

The Michelle Carew Classic also displayed the strength of Southern California softball and why those teams get benefit of the doubt when it comes to rankings.

St. Francis of Mountain View (Calif.), Canyon del Oro of Arizona and Canyon View of Arizona were all unbeaten heading into the week and all would have been top 25 in these rankings.

However, St. Francis lost twice, Canyon del Oro lost three times and Canyon View lost four times facing SoCal teams, and not all of them are in the top 25 for California.

As mentioned in previous SUPER 70 national rankings, Monday results and Tuesday results are counted each week (but Wednesday is not as that is when the cutoff has to be made).

On Monday, Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills (Calif.) had its chance to move up to No. 1 in the state upended in a 5-1 loss to Whitney of Rocklin. The Trojans would have been perhaps as high as No. 5 in these national rankings if they hadn’t lost.

On Tuesday, South Warren of Bowling Green (Ky.) came up with a big win over previous No. 7 Pace (Fla.) and previous No. 25 Hernando (Miss.) suffered its first loss of the season to DeSoto Central (Miss.).

Look for the Line Drive SUPER 70 to be posted every week now for the rest of the high school season. Everyone will now be playing for several weeks with some of the very first state champions to be crowned in only a few weeks in Louisiana. 

— Mark Tennis of CalHiSports.com for Line Drive Softball

 *****

(Through reported results of Tuesday, April 8)

1. (21) Orange Beach (Orange Beach, Ala.) 23-1
2. (3) Melissa (Melissa, Texas) 25-0
3. (1) Doral Academy (Doral, Fla.) 18-1
4. (6) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 25-0
5. (2) Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) 17-2
6. (9) Barbers Hill (Mt. Belvieu, Texas) 25-2
7. (10) Katy (Katy, Texas) 28-1
8. (5) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 17-2
9. (13) Summerville (Summerville, S.C.) 16-0
10. (14) Calvary Christian (Clearwater, Fla.) 19-0

Scroll down to see the rest of the Top 50 plus 20 more teams on the bubble…