Sept. 21 Softball Power Rankings

Each week, OzarksSportsZone.com will release local softball power rankings. Like our other power rankings, these rankings will be based on dominance by Class, not head-to-head.

As always, I encourage players, fans, parents and coaches to email me (listed above) or Tweet at me with big single-game performances, player milestones or whatever else you may find interesting, even if your team isn't listed in the power rankings! Mainly because I'd love to get that content out even if we weren't there for a recap. Alright, now on to this week's Top 15.

CLICK FOR SEPT. 14 POWER RANKINGS
CLICK FOR SEPT. 6 POWER RANKINGS

1. Camdenton (14-3, C4, Last week: 1)

Two games and two wins this week for Camdenton, outscoring Waynesville (8-5, C4) and Smith-Cotton (2-12, C4) by a combined 26-1. The Lakers have shown no reason to be knocked off the top spot and have now allowed two runs or less in 12 of their last 13 games (only allowing more than one run in one of those 12 games). On top of that, the Lakers have outscored opponents 123-15 over that 13-game stretch and 163-27 ( 136) on the season. Stats for the Lakers are a week behind, but just to reiterate how deep this lineup is, SIX regular starters have an OPS over 1.000, with four of those six over 1.100. All six of those bats are hitting at least .417 and seven Lakers have at least 12 RBIs. Kelly Uthe (1.89 ERA, 28 Ks, 33.1 IP), Haile Farris (0.29 ERA, 35 Ks, 24.0 IP) and Kylee Compton (2.16 ERA, 33 Ks, 22.2 IP) continue to display the best rotation depth around (not that Republic needs depth on the mound, but I’ll get to that shortly!). This weekend’s Springfield Invitational is going to tell a lot about this team as they may face Republic for the first time this season.

This week’s opponents: 9/23 Springfield Invitational, 9/26 Parkview (3-11)

2. Republic (13-3, C4, Last week: 2)

Well, Camdenton outscored two opponents 26-1 and Republic outscored three 31-0. It’s becoming harder and harder to see any separation between these two, and the only reason the Tigers are still No. 2 is the depth in the Camdenton lineup. Since the Pryor (Okla.) tournament, Republic has outscored opponents 91-2 in nine games (all wins, obviously). Overall this year, that total is 123-22 ( 101), with only six runs against coming in non-tournament play. Like Camdenton against Waynesville, the Tigers did a great job in separating themselves even more from good Class 4 competition in an 11-0 win over Branson (7-5)—Rachel Rook threw a five-inning perfect game in that win—and a 10-0 win over Jeff City (6-7, C4)—Rook threw a six-inning no-no in that one. (Yes, I know that Camdenton only beat Jeff City 9-8. Let’s wait for the Springfield Invitational to see what that meant). As far as your weekly Rook update, the senior is now 13-3 with a 0.96 ERA (calculated for a 7-inning game) and has 147 strikeouts in 86.2 innings. Rook also had her best week at the plate all year, hitting a home run against Jeff City and slapping a pair of singles against Branson. Ally Stolte’s average jumped to .405 after a 7-12 week that included a pair of home runs—one being a grand slam in a seven-RBI game against Branson. She now leads the team with 18 RBIs. Lastly, a shoutout to Kami Holt for becoming Republic’s all-time home run leader last week (missed that milestone in the Sept. 14 Power Rankings)!

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Carthage (8-8), 9/23 Springfield Invitational, 9/27 Willard (7-4)

3. Norwood (10-3, C1, Last week: 4)

Just one game played this week thanks to rain delays, which included the postponement of the Norwood tournament to this coming weekend. The Pirates had another good win in that one game, however, beating Class 2 Mansfield (7-4), 4-1. Like I said last week, I’m excited to see how the Pirates perform in their tournament. Even outside of that, Norwood has a very tough and telling week ahead of them with Willow Springs, Marion C. Early and Bakersfield on the schedule (records below). They’ve been very consistent against Class 1 and 2 competition and deserve to be in this spot.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Willow Springs (10-3), 9/23 Marion C. Early (10-4), 9/24 Norwood Tournament, 9/27 Bakersfield (9-3)

4. Willow Springs (10-3, C2, Last week: 3)

The Bears struggled to score this week against a very good Salem team (11-1, C3) and a good Class 1 team in Van Buren (6-2), losing 3-1 and 7-1 in those games, respectively. Willow Springs had an early 1-0 lead over Salem, but the Tigers put up single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings. I thought they’d do a little better against Van Buren, but that’s not a typical Class 1 team (Van Buren fell to West Plains 4-1 and won 21 games last year). The Norwood tournament being rained out was disappointing (it will be played this weekend instead), but Willow has done enough at the Class 2 level this year to stay in this spot, especially after that game against Salem, which the Bears had a chance to win in the bottom of the seventh. Only one new game of stats this week, so no new notables to report, but Sydney Miller pitched a strong game against Salem, striking out eight and giving up seven eights and two walks over seven innings (two earned runs).

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Norwood (10-3), 9/24 Norwood Tournament, 9/26 Ava (6-4)

5. Rogersville (11-3, C3, Last week: 5)

Every week for these rankings I get to go through boxscores and enter stats into a database to get updated totals, and every week there’s not a stat line that I look forward to more than Hailey Brown’s. The speedy leadoff hitter went 4-4 with three runs and three steals in a 13-3 win over Hillcrest (7-7, C4) and 1-3 with two runs and a steal in a 12-4 win over Reeds Spring (7-6, C3). Brown has 3+ hits in six games this season and is batting .643 with 24 runs and 21 steals because of it. Shelby Ince has been great behind Brown and is 8-13 in her last four games at the plate. Rogersville is really going to be tested in the Springfield Invitational this weekend. The Wildcats will need Hunter Bledsoe (1.24 ERA, 49 Ks, 51.0 IP) to be at the top of her game.

This week’s opponents: 9/23 Springfield Invitational, 9/27 Marshfield (7-9)

6. Salem (11-1, C3, Last week: 6)

The Lady Tigers had themselves a week, going 4-0 with wins over Cuba (7-4, C2), Dora (10-6, C1), Dixon (9-2, C2) and Willow Springs (10-3, C2) by a combined 40-20. Yeah, all four were under-class programs, but all four are very good ones. Last week I said I’d get an O-Zone t-shirt to whoever keeps up the full-season hitting streak the longest, a competition between Camryn Pryor, Payton Curley and Shelby Carr. That’s now down to Curley (.467 avg.) and Carr (.625 avg.)! But Pryor is just fine with that .605 batting average. Carr had her best game of the season on the mound against Dixon, pitching a full 9.0 innings and allowing three earned runs while striking out six. That was actually one heck of a game. Salem took a 9-6 lead with four runs in the top of the seventh, and Dixon responded with three to force extras before the Lady Tigers put up an EIGHT SPOT in the ninth.

This week’s opponents: 9/23 Potosi Tournament, 9/26 St. Clair (2-6)

7. Monett (10-2, C3, Last week: 9)

Just one game for the Cubs this past week. They played a one-win Class 3 Carl Junction team and won going away, 11-1. Tough to pinpoint standouts with just one game on the schedule, but Haley Williams bounced back with a pair of hits after her first game this season without a hit happened last week. Williams now has 2+ hits in 10 of 12 games this year and is batting .585. Fact is, the Cubs have been hitting the ball well all season and now are looking good on the defensive side and on the mound. It's time for this jump in the rankings.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Aurora (5-6), 9/24 Centralia Invitational, 9/27 McDonald County (12-3)

8. Marion C. Early (10-4, C1, Last week: 14)

The Lady Panthers topped an underrated Walnut Grove (7-7, C1) in nine innings, 7-6, last Thursday and handled Class 4 Glendale (0-12) on Monday, 8-4. MCE is now 5-0 against Class 1 competition since that opening loss to Hermitage. A lot of Class 1 intrigue coming in Friday afternoon’s game with Norwood (10-3).

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Humansville (3-9), 9/23 Norwood (10-3), 9/27 Pleasant Hope (9-7)

9. McDonald County (12-3, C4, Last week: 7)

The Mustangs did what they needed to do with wins over Class 2 teams Lamar (2-7) and Seneca (6-11), but those games were actually a little closer than expected (3-2 over Seneca, 13-5 over Lamar). The Branson tournament was rained out for McDonald County this weekend and they were shutout 1-0 by a hot Cassville team (8-3, C3) on Tuesday.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 East Newton (8-5), 9/26 Webb City (10-7), 9/27 Monett (10-2)

10. El Dorado Springs (9-3, C2, Last week: 8)

Only one game this week for the Bulldogs, and it came last week in an 11-1 loss to Class 2 Sherwood. Sherwood made state last year and their only loss was 1-0 to a Leeton team that they beat 10-0 the day before. The Bulldogs gave regular starter Tailor Hutsell (1.31 ERA) a day off in the game, so there’s really not much that can be taken from the loss; the only concern is that only Hutsell managed a hit. Let’s give ElDo some time to recover before dropping them down too much because, as Sherwood proved with Leeton, things happen. The Mustangs will participate in the Pleasant Hope tournament this weekend with a big chance to bounce back.

This week’s opponents: 9/23,24 Pleasant Hope Tournament, 9/26 Humansville (4-9), 9/27 Montrose (3-7)

11. Ozark (13-4, C4, Last week: 11)

Ozark with wins over Class 4 Willard (7-4), Webster Groves (7-8), Lee’s Summit West (8-4), Eureka (8-6) and Nixa (8-10) this week and losses against Class 4 St. Joe Central (9-10) and Webb City (10-7). Overall, a very good week for the Tigers with three quality wins. The loss to a good Webb City team is something to keep an eye on, but more for Webb than for Ozark. The Tigers trailed 6-0 through two innings in that loss and actually fought back to grab 7-6 lead in the sixth before Webb forced and won in extras.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Nixa (7-8), 9/26 Bolivar (2-7), 9/27 Hillcrest (7-7)

12. West Plains (8-3, C3, Last week: 13)

Two games and two wins over Class 4 opponents for Class 3 West Plains this week, pushing their win streak to six games. The Zizzers rallied at Kickapoo, scoring two in the top of the seventh for a 4-3 win behind 12 strikeouts by Abbey Gann and a Karsyn Smith home run. The other win wasn’t quite so tough, topping Joplin 11-1 after scoring eight insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Karsyn Smith increased her hit streak to seven games. She’s leading the team with a .450 average. Abbey Gann struck out 20 in 13.0 innings this week and now has 101 strikeouts in 67.0 innings to go with a 1.04 ERA and 0.94 WHIP.

This week’s opponents: 9/23 Springfield Invitational, 9/26 Hillcrest (7-7)

13. Dixon (9-2, C2, Last week: N/A)

Dixon joins the rankings this week after a 3-0 win over Class 2 Iberia (7-5) and a 15-3 win over Class 1 Laquey. I also think their 17-9 loss to Class 3 Salem is pretty intriguing. The nine runs were the most anyone has scored on Salem since the Lady Tigers beat St. James 13-12 in their opener. Tressa Hughes had a pretty great stat-line in that nine-inning loss, striking out 18 Salem batters in a 171-pitch performance, but also allowing 10 earned runs. But beyond that game, Dixon has allowed just 13 runs in 10 games and are 5-0 against Class 2 opponents. Their only other loss was 3-2 to Class 4 Waynesville. Tough tests this week with three non-tournament teams combining for 21-13 records.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Cuba (7-4), 9/24 Versailles Tournament, 9/26 Belle (7-6), 9/27 Crocker (7-3)

14. Cassville (8-3, C3, Last week: N/A)

I’ve been keeping an eye on these Wildcats since Josie Lone threw a 14-strikeout perfect game in an 11-0 win over Parkview on Aug. 23 and it’s finally time for them to join this list. Lone and the Wildcats shutdown Class 4 McDonald County 1-0 on Tuesday and Class 3 Reeds Spring (7-6) 2-0 on Monday. Lone now has six shutouts this season and three of those came against teams that are either currently or were formerly in my Top 15. That’s really good! The Wildcats did get beat 11-1 to Class 3 Monett on Sept. 1, but beyond that their only losses are against Class 4 competition in Neosho (6-7) and Willard (7-4). The Wildcats have a tough draw in this weekend’s Springfield Invitational, facing Republic and West Plains in pool play.

This week’s opponents: 9/23 Springfield Invitational, 9/26 Nixa (7-8)

15. Bakersfield (9-3, C1, Last week: 12)
The Lady Lions only played once this week and it was an 8-2 loss to Class 2 Hartville. Hartville isn’t the greatest Class 2 team and a more competitive final tally would’ve certainly looked nicer, but overall, the Lions have still handled Class 1 competition this year, and that’s what these power rankings are all about. That plus batting .406 as a team is nothing to ignore. Bakersfield has a tough schedule over the next seven days. Time to see if they can stick.

This week’s opponents: 9/22 Dora (10-6), 9/23 Alton (4-11), 9/27 Norwood (10-3)

Keep an eye on: Dora (10-6, C1), Pleasant Hope (7-6, C2), Branson (7-5, C4), Willard (7-4, C4), East Newton (8-5, C1), Reeds Spring (7-6, C3), Waynesville (8-5, C4), Hermitage (8-5, C1), Walnut Grove (7-7, C1), Webb City (10-7, C4)