With the high school softball season ending this week, at least two parish teams are assured of playoff berths — the Haughton Lady Bucs and the Benton Lady Tigers.
Parkway also has a good shot at making it. According to Louisiana prep website kenramsey.com, Parkway is ranked No. 31 in the Class 5A power rankings. The top 32 generally make the playoffs.
Haughton is No. 24 in Class 5A and Benton is No. 22, according to kenramsey.com. Both will likely be on the road for first-round games.
All three teams have games scheduled this week, but two games were rained out Monday — Byrd at Haughton and Airline at Parkway.
The district championships have been decided. Byrd clinched the District 1-5A title with a 5-1 victory over Parkway last week. North DeSoto, ranked No. 1 in the 4A power rankings, rolled through District 1-4A with a 6-0 mark. Benton, Loyola and Northwood finished tied for second at 4-2.
Here is a look at how parish teams fared last week.
Parkway: The Lady Panthers handed Haughton its first 1-5A loss 9-4 before falling to Byrd. They also were tied with North Webster 3-3 in a game that was suspended because of inclement weather.
Mary Kate Bozeman went 4-for-4 with a triple, double and three RBI against Haughton. Rebecca Lynch had three hits, including a double, and three RBI. Kendall Lewis had a two-RBI double. Alexis Rayborn also had a double.
Samantha Guile scattered six hits and struck out 10.
Byrd scored two runs in the first inning and then Guile kept the Lady Jackets scoreless until the seventh when they added three with the help of a couple of errors. Guile allowed six hits and struck out five.
Parkway managed just four hits off Byrd’s Callie Crandall.
Bozeman had two hits, including a home run, against North Webster. Kaytlyn Guerrero also had two hits. Lewis had a double.
Haughton: The Lady Bucs defeated Captain Shreve 15-0 and lost to Parkway, Byrd 4-3 and Menard 9-3.
Anna Dies went 4-for-4 with a home run, double and three RBI against Shreve. Lacey Dodson had three hits, including a double, and two RBI. Savannah Salley and Leah Hopson had two hits and two RBI each.
Dodson, Salley, Savannah O’Neal and Natalie Smith all had doubles. Ashley Smith pitched a four-inning three-hitter.
O’Neal went 2-for-3 against Parkway. Dies had two RBI.
Dies went 2-for-3 with a double against Byrd. Ashley Smith also had two hits. Dies scattered eight hits and struck out eight.
Haughton cut the lead to one with a run in the bottom of the seventh but left runners at second and third.
Dies and O’Neal had two hits each against Menard. One of Dies’ was a double.
Benton: The Lady Tigers split two District 1-4A games on the same day, defeating Minden 16-1 and falling to Northwood 8-5.
Chelsea Rangel went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI against Minden. Mackenzie Stewart had two doubles and four RBI. Hallie Saintignan had a two-RBI triple. Yancey Cox had two hits. Mackenzie Eddy had three RBI.
Stewart pitched a four-inning one-hitter.
Abi Cole went 3-for-4 with a double against Northwood. Rangel had a triple, double and three RBI.
Airline: The Lady Vikings defeated Captain Shreve 10-5 and lost to Lutcher 5-4 and defending 5A state champ Ouachita Parish 14-0.
Airline scored five in the bottom of the sixth to break a 5-5 tie against Shreve.
Kaitlyn Walker went 4-for-4 with a triple and two doubles. Kaylee Adams had three hits, including two doubles, and two RBI. Olivia Broussard went 2-for-3 with a double. Brittany Nelson and Kelci Johnson had two hits each. Hannah Hutson doubled.
Katie Briggs allowed just three hits in five innings and struck out four. Hutson gave up two hits in two innings and struck out four.
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
