
For the next to last SUPER 70 national high school softball rankings, there are only a handful of teams with games still to play this week.
The most significant, of course, by far is No. 1 South Warren of Bowling Green, Ky. which has two more games to go to finish its magical season undefeated.
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The Spartans got a scare in their state quarterfinal match-up last Saturday, but got past Madison Central, 4-3, and will now take a 43-0 record into the semifinals on Friday vs 40-6 Highlands of Fort Thomas, Ky.
The state final of the no-divisions Kentucky state playoffs will be the next night.
South Warren not only has handed Orange Beach of Alabama (46-1) its only loss but also has a win over Florida Class 6A state champion Pace.
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If South Warren were to lose this weekend, it’s not automatic that current No. 2 Lake Creek of Texas will move to the top of the final rankings.
No. 3 Orange Beach (with a loss to South Warren) wouldn’t move up, but No. 4 Barbers Hill of Texas (ranked higher by some over Lake Creek due to a head-to-head win) could move up.
There’s also No. 5 Destiny Christian of Sacramento, Calif., which completed a historic 31-0 season on Saturday with a 6-3 win over Whitney of Rocklin in the CIF NorCal D1 championship.
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LSU-bound Ayla Tuua homered in the first inning and pitched one-run ball over six innings, but teammates Ella Dossey (a sophomore who had a three-run homer in the fifth inning that erased a 2-1 deficit) and Purdue-bound Roxanne Sardo (two-run homer later in the fifth inning) were equally important in the win.
Destiny Christian became the first unbeaten team to finish No. 1 in California since Archbishop Mitty of San Jose in 2009 at 32-0.
While the Lions didn’t play any of the top teams in Southern California and don’t seem to have the depth of top players like the best teams in Southern California have, they do have Tuua (one of the top players in the nation), Sardo and some others in their lineup who can make them difficult for any team they’d play anywhere.
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Another team locking up a final top 10 spot in this year’s rankings last week was Kenton Ridge of Springfield, Ohio (32-0).
It was not an easy win for the Cougars in their Ohio D4 state championship, however.
They fell behind to another unbeaten team, Licking Valley of Newark, 6-0 in the early innings but stormed back for a 7-6 win. Jayden Davis had a go-ahead two-run single in the sixth inning and ended the game 3-for-4 with three RBI.
Kenton Ridge also has two other factors in its favor regarding a high national ranking.
First, this year’s perfect season was the team’s second in a row, and it will take a 64-game win streak into next season.
Second, the Cougars had a win during the season vs. Hilliard Bradley of Hilliard, Ohio, which won the D1 state title over a Lancaster squad that took out previously unbeaten Austintown Fitch in the semifinals.
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The Illinois High School Association state championships held last weekend also caused some changes in this week’s rankings.
In D1, previous national No. 8 Marist of Chicago was upset in the Class 4A (highest division) semifinals by Lincoln-Way West. That team then won the 4A state title with a 6-1 win over Mundelein behind pitcher Abby Brueggman.
The team from Illinois that then became the one to rank the highest was 2A state champion Cartersville, which had a win over Lincoln-Way West during the season and ended 39-1 (with a split against the only team it lost to).
State Class 3A champion Antioch also was moved up in this week’s rankings for beating Glenwood in its championship game (that was the team that split with Cartersville).
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(Previous rank in parentheses)
*Season still going
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