New No. 1 & 2 As Undefeated Texas Teams Rise to the Top

It’s another change at the top of the Line Drive Media SUPER 70 National High School Rankings, but this time it is going to the team that would safely be described as the No. 1 team as a consensus of all of the other national rankings that are currently being done.

Previous No. 1 and defending SUPER 70 national champion Orange Beach (Alabama) was on a 28-game win streak entering the finals of last week’s Hornet Invitational in Chelsea, Ala., but the Makos suffered a 4-0 loss to Thompson of Alabaster, Ala.

That team also is nationally ranked and the two state powers hadn’t met since 2023.

The Warriors scored twice in the first inning on an error and plated two more in the sixth on a single by Hannah Hobbs. Kadyn Bush pitched 5 ⅔ shutout innings and got out of a lot of jams with runners on base. Aubrey Hooks finished off the shutout and went 2-for-4 at the plate.

In this week’s rankings, Thompson didn’t move up in front of Orange Beach since the Warriors also had a loss of their own last week (to Chelsea). The Makos still have their big wins over Florida teams Doral Academy and Montverde Academy from the Kissimmee Klassic and only dropped from No. 1 to No. 3.

Alabama softball is just different from the rest of the country as well.

Its top teams play close to 50 games or more each season since most of them are in weekend tournaments for almost every weekend in the spring and there are double-elimination playoff brackets. With that many games, going undefeated is just much, much more difficult. 

Another factor is that not all of the leading Alabama teams are in the same state playoff brackets. Orange Beach, for example, is 4A while Thompson is 7A.

There isn’t going to be a match-up between the two to decide a state title. They could play again this weekend, however, at the annual Hoover Classic. Both will be in it, along with national No. 13 Curry of Jasper, Ala.

Orange Beach has already avenged one of its two losses and there’s a chance that the one to Thompson could be avenged at the Hoover Classic.

That’s still enough to push both Melissa of Melissa, Texas, and Lake Creek of Montgomery, Texas, to the top spots.

Remember what we said about the Alabama teams not in the same state playoff division?

That is not the case for Melissa and Lake Creek in the Lone Star State. They are both 5A for the upcoming University Interscholastic League (UIL) state playoffs and the possibility exists for them to play each other down the road, which is why they are now 1-2 in the SUPER 70.

If one of the two does go unbeaten and wins the 5A state title, that’s about as much of a no-brainer for a final No. 1 national ranking that could exist.

The twist to that scenario is that in Texas it’s possible for a team to lose games (there are best-of-three series in some brackets) yet still advance. Either Melissa or Lake Creek, therefore, could have losses yet still win the 5A state title.

Tuesday games were once again another major factor in determining the final order of this week’s rankings.

• Doral Academy had a big matchup with Wellington in Florida and won, 2-1.
• In Texas, Summer Creek of Houston avenged an earlier loss and beat a Kingwood team that would have been in top 30 above, 6-3.
• And in Mississippi, state No. 1 Hernando played another of the top teams in the state and got past DeSoto Central, 3-0.

The regular season is now over in Louisiana, and it will be over in several states after this weekend. Many top teams in cold-weather states, meanwhile, are still in the early stages of their seasons.

— Mark Tennis of CalHiSports.com for Line Drive Softball

 *****

(Previous rank in parentheses; after games of Tuesday, April 15)

1. (2) Melissa (Melissa, Texas) 27-0
2. (4) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 26-0
3. (1) Orange Beach (Orange Beach, Ala.) 28-2
4. (3) Doral Academy (Doral, Fla.) 22-1
5. (5) Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) 21-2
6. (6) Barbers Hill (Mt. Belvieu, Texas) 27-2
7. (7) Katy (Katy, Texas) 29-1
8. (8) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 20-2
9. (9) Summerville (Summerville, S.C.) 19-0
10. (11) Thompson (Alabaster, Ala.) 32-3

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