Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The prep softball regular season has a tendency to fly by.

With nearly all 40 games scheduled between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July the season can be a blur.

That is nothing compared to the pace of the postseason.

Regional play gets underway across the state on Tuesday and in seven days the state tournament field will be set.

The state tournament is set to run from July 19-23 at Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge meaning there is just a little more than two weeks of the softball season remaining.

Before the postseason gets underway here is a quick breakdown of the Regionals featuring Your Prep Sports area teams.

Class 2A

Class 2A, Region 7

Top seed: Louisa-Muscatine (19-8). Don’t be fooled by the eight losses, seven of which have come to ranked opponents and the other to Class 5A Davenport West.

Ranked teams: No. 3 Louisa-Muscatine; No. 13 Wapello; No. 15 Van Buren

Breakdown: West Branch (15-15) opens Region 7 play on Tuesday hosting North Cedar (6-18) in a rematch of a regular season River Valley Conference contest won by the Bears 8-4 back on June 18. A win sends the Bears to Letts on Wednesday for a meeting with top-seeded Louisa-Muscatine.

West Branch is no stranger to top-level competition with six of its last seven losses coming to ranked teams. The Bears have shown the ability to play with those teams, posting wins over 3A No. 9 West Liberty and 2A No. 14 Northeast.

Regina (16-12) hosts Pekin (9-17) in a quarterfinal on Wednesday and would face the winner of Louisa-Muscatine’s quarterfinal contest in the semifinals with a win.

The Regals are seeking their first trip to state since 2018 after qualifying four consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2018.

The lower half of the bracket sets up for a semifinal rematch between Van Buren (21-5) and Wapello (18-7). Wapello won the regular season meeting 12-2.

What to watch: Pitching is the name of the game in the postseason and Regina has an emerging ace in junior Emma Nibaur.

Nibaur has helped the Regals rank second among Class 2A teams in opponents batting average at .162 with opposing players hitting just .126 off the junior righthander this season.

In a career-high 134 1/3 innings Nibaur owns a 1.82 ERA and has walked just 23 while striking out 122.

Nibaur has been impressive in wins over ranked teams Clear Creek Amana, Solon and West Liberty and will look to continue that success into the postseason.

Class 3A

Class 3A, Region 7

Top seed: Davenport Assumption (31-3)

Ranked teams: No. 1 Davenport Assumption; No. 10 Solon

Breakdown: With only two teams with winning records and five teams with single digit win totals Region 7 features little intrigue in the opening two rounds with all signs pointing toward a top-10 final between Davenport Assumption and Solon.

Solon (24-12) hosts South Tama (4-33) in a quarterfinal Tuesday a team the Spartans outscored 28-3 in a doubleheader sweep last week.

The Spartans get homefield advantage to the title game and would host the winner of West Marshall (6-19) and Union (8-19) in a semifinal on Friday. Solon defeated Union 12-0 in the regular season.

The first two rounds may not be daunting but things get considerably more difficult in a hurry if Solon gets its anticipated finals matchup with top-ranked Davenport Assumption.

The Knights face Tipton (1-25) in the quarterfinals and the winner of Camanche (5-21) and Maquoketa (17-18) would await in the semis.

Assumption has been the gold standard for 3A softball over the past half decade reaching the 3A semifinals each of the past five seasons, playing in four state title games and winning three consecutive titles from 2017 to 2019.

The three losses for Assumption this season are to 5A No. 1 Muscatine, No. 2 Fort Dodge and No. 7 Pleasant Valley and the Knights have six wins over 5A teams currently ranked in the top eight.

What to watch: A Solon and Assumption title game would match one of the top hitting teams in 3A in Solon one of the best pitching teams in Assumption.

Solon leads 3A in team batting average at .437, which is .037 points higher than Assumption who has the second highest team mark at .400.

The Spartans rank third in 3A in home runs (28), rank second in slugging percentage, first in on-base percentage and are third in runs while averaging better than eight per game.

Meanwhile, Assumption ranks fourth in 3A in team ERA at 1.31 and second in opponents batting average at .161.

Junior Bella Nigey leads a strong Assumption staff with a 20-2 record and .64 ERA while striking out 188 in 120 1/3 innings.

Class 4A

Class 4A, Region 8

Top seed: Clear Creek Amana (27-8)

Ranked teams: No. 8 Clear Creek Amana; No. 10 Marion

Breakdown: Clear Creek Amana earned the top seed and an opening round bye in Region 8 and will host the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between Central DeWitt (11-25) and Cedar Rapids Xavier (22-17).

If it can get by Central DeWitt on Thursday Xavier could present a tricky semifinal opponent for the Clippers. The Saints have won seven nine entering postseason play with the lone two losses coming to 5A eighth-ranked Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

Second-seeded Marion (24-11) could have its own challenging semifinal against North Scott (15-20) which has lost its last seven games all against top-10 teams.

What to watch: Clear Creek Amana lost four of five to close the regular season but has gotten some much needed rest with eight days between its regular season finale and its regional opener.

The Clippers relied heavily on sophomore ace Ashley Webb down the stretch and a rested Webb has proven to be one of the best in Class 4A.

Webb is 17-5 this season with a 1.12 ERA with 158 strikeouts in 150 2/3 innings and has helped Clear Creek Amana lead 4A in both team ERA (1.73) and opponents batting average (.174).

Class 5A

Class 5A, Region 5

Top seed: Cedar Rapids Kennedy (26-9)

Ranked teams: No. 8 Cedar Rapids Kennedy; No. 11 Liberty High

Breakdown: One of the more balanced regionals in 5A, Region 5 features four teams with win totals between 23 and 26.

Liberty High (24-13) hosts Cedar Rapids Jefferson (25-13) in an intriguing semifinal on Saturday with top-seeded Cedar Rapids Kennedy awaiting the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between Cedar Falls (23-16) and Waterloo West (7-29).

Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Liberty High split a doubleheader last month with the J-Hawks winning game one 16-4 and Liberty High taking the nightcap 6-2.

With the entire Region 5 field coming from the Mississippi Valley Conference rematches abound in every round.

Toss in the fact that the top two seeds Liberty High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy met in the regional final last season and Region 5 becomes the unofficial rematch bracket of 5A.

Defending 5A state champion Cedar Rapids Kennedy won the only meeting with Liberty High this season 3-1 in a rain-shortened doubleheader.

What to watch: Liberty High has been without injured ace pitcher Kara Maiers since June 15 and struggled initially without its senior standout.

The Lightning went 4-8 in its first 12 games without Maiers in the circle, at one point dropping eight of 10 after being swept in a doubleheader by 4A No. 2 Western Dubuque.

Liberty High has found its footing at the right time winning six straight following a doubleheader sweep of Linn-Mar on Monday.

The Lightning are averaging 9.8 runs per game during their current six-game winning streak and have gotten strong starting pitching performances from sophomore Kennedy Daugherty and junior Kinsley Robertson.

Class 5A, Region 6

Top seed: City High (31-7)

Ranked teams: No. 5 City High; No. 13 Cedar Rapids Prairie

Breakdown: City High will host the winner of a quarterfinal between Marshalltown (5-27) and Cedar Rapids Washington (0-39) in its regional opener on Saturday.

Awaiting the Little Hawks in the final will be familiar foe as MVC rivals Cedar Rapids Prairie (27-13) and Linn-Mar (25-11) meet in the other semifinal.

Linn-Mar and Prairie split a pair of 5-4 games in a regular season doubleheader last week.

City High is a combined 6-0 against Linn-Mar, Prairie and Cedar Rapids Washington this season sweep all three in doubleheaders by a combined score of 51-6.

Cedar Rapids Prairie would certainly be a formidable foe in the title game. City High defeated the Hawks 2-0 in eight innings and 3-1 in regular season meetings last month.

What to watch: City High has won 10 of its last 11 games entering the postseason with the lone loss during that stretch coming to 5A third-ranked Johnston.

The Little Hawks are seeking a third state tournament appearance in the past four seasons after falling to Muscatine in the regional final last season.

City High has been hitting its stride offensively over the past several weeks averaging 9.3 runs per game over its last 10 games and scoring double digit runs seven times during that stretch.

Class 5A, Region 8

Top seed: Muscatine (32-3)

Ranked teams: No. 1 Muscatine; No. 15 Bettendorf

Breakdown: Few teams in the state can claim a more challenging postseason path than West High (13-22).

All of Region 8 is a challenge with four of the five teams boasting winning records but the Trojans have the toughest path starting Thursday with a quarterfinal trip to Ottumwa (21-15).

With a win on Thursday West High would earn a semifinal matchup with top-ranked Muscatine which has won 13 in a row entering its regular season finale with Davenport West on Tuesday.

The bottom half of the bracket features a rematch between conference rivals Bettendorf (21-13) and Davenport West (18-14). Bettendorf swept the Falcons in a doubleheader last month winning 8-5 and 5-4.

What to watch: West High enters the postseason playing its best softball of the season.

The Trojans have won six of their last eight after splitting a doubleheader with Cedar Rapids Jefferson on Monday night in Cedar Rapids.

West High is scoring seven runs per game over it last eight and has scored double digit runs three times during that stretch.

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