Playoffs Take Place In Warm Weather States; Early in Season for East & Midwest

The longest state playoffs in the nation are well underway in Texas, the regular season just ended in Alabama and district playoffs have been happening in Florida.

All of that means that almost all of the top teams in those states have yet to face any real challenges as the later rounds of those playoffs is where the top teams are likely going to be tested the most.

This week’s new Line Drive Softball Super 70 reflects that time of the season as the first 12 teams stayed in order from the previous week. 

National No. 1 Melissa of Melissa, Texas swept a pair of games from Texas High of Texarkana in the Class 5A D1 bracket while No. 2 Lake Creek of Montgomery, Texas swept a pair from Dayton in the Class 5A D2 bracket.

In last week’s rankings, it was speculated that those top two Texas squads could meet in the playoffs, but apologies to all as this season all of the classes in the Texas playoffs have been split into two divisions.

Melissa is 5A D1 and Lake Creek is 5A D2. They both can still lose a game in their playoffs in a best-of-three series, but unlike last year when they could have played each other in a Class 5A bracket with the new divisions that can’t happen this season.

Texas adding divisions in which now the top teams in the state are less likely to play each other during the season – Katy is 6A D1, Forney is 6A D2, Coahoma is 3A D2, etc. – which is the complete opposite of the trend in

California where competitive equity seedings puts top teams in the same divisions. The CIF Southern Section D1 playoffs already were packed with top teams before this year’s new competitive equity seedings are being used and they will be even more so now.

With that method of doing it, it’s even more of a gap that the CIFSS D1 playoffs will be the best in the nation compared to any other playoff bracket in any other state.

A California team also moved up the most in this week’s rankings from within the first 25 spots.

Del Oro of Loomis avenged its only loss last week with a 4-2 win over previous No. 13 Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills, Calif.). Sophomore pitcher Mikayla Finn struck out 16 batters and ended with a four-hitter. Caelyn Campos had the big hit of the game with a two-run single in the sixth inning.

Del Oro moved up from No. 16 to No. 13 in this week’s rankings. Oak Ridge dropped from No. 13 to No. 23. And since the Golden Eagles avenged their only loss and looking ahead could potentially win the CIF NorCal D1 title, they also became a contender to be California’s State Team of the Year.

While the playoffs are beckoning in the warm weather states, it’s still considered the early part of the season in the Midwest and in the East. 

In Michigan, Mercy of Farmington Hills has returned to No. 1 in the state after splitting a doubleheader in its first two games with Divine Child of Dearborn. The Marlins won a doubleheader on Tuesday, 8-0 and 15-7 over St. Mary’s of Orchard Lake, and have moved up to No. 39 in this week’s Super 70.

In Ohio, the first two teams in the preseason D1 state rankings, Austintown-Fitch and Canfield, have lost but No. 3 Walsh Jesuit began this week at 10-0. The Warriors have thus moved in and moved up to No. 33 in this week’s Super 70.

— Mark Tennis of CalHiSports.com for Line Drive Softball

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(Previous rank in parentheses; after games of Tuesday, April 29)

1. (1) Melissa (Melissa, Texas) 31-0
2. (2) Lake Creek (Montgomery, Texas) 29-0
3. (3) Orange Beach (Orange Beach, Ala.) 39-2
4. (4) Doral Academy (Doral, Fla.) 25-1
5. (5) Katy (Katy, Texas) 34-1
6. (6) Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) 24-2
7. (7) Summerville (Summerville, S.C.) 24-0
8. (8) Norco (Norco, Calif.) 24-2
9. (9) Forney (Forney, Texas) 27-1-1
10. (10) Rosary (Fullerton, Calif.) 23-2-1

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