Iowa high school softball regional brackets are coming: What to watch for

The brackets are coming, probably as early as Thursday or Friday.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has the unenviable challenge of separating Eastern Iowa power into regions for the postseason softball series, which begins July 1.

The state tournament is set for the Rogers Sports Complex near Fort Dodge, July 18-22.

Here’s how things might look:

Class 5A

Regional quarterfinals: July 7.

Regional semifinals: July 9.

Regional finals: July 12.

Geography isn’t as much of a factor among the 40 “big” schools, so they’ll follow somewhat of an S-curve (1 vs. 16 in a projected regional final, 2 vs. 15, etc.).

At No. 6, Linn-Mar (22-3) is the lone area team in the top eight, and thus the only area team slotted to host a regional final at this point. No. 10 Iowa City Liberty (21-6) slipped 1 1/2 games behind Linn-Mar in the MVC Mississippi Division race Tuesday. Those two teams could be matched on opposite sides of a regional.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy (17-9) is the next best area 5A team and is a potential regional-semifinal host. Likely “3 seeds” — and thus regional-semifinal road teams — include Cedar Rapids Prairie (15-11), Iowa City High (12-14) and maybe Cedar Rapids Jefferson (10-16).

Class 4A

Regional quarterfinals: July 7.

Regional semifinals: July 9.

Regional finals: July 12.

Central Iowa holds the power in this class, and that might cause the map in the IGHSAU war room to look like a pinwheel, with regions going from the middle of the state outward to the borders in different directions.

That could lead to regional-final matchups like Western Dubuque at Norwalk or Cedar Rapids Xavier at Carlisle or Solon at Indianola.

At No. 3, Clear Creek Amana (22-3) is the area’s top team. The defending 4A champion, No. 11 Western Dubuque (16-11) is beginning to gain momentum. So are Xavier (15-11, 10 straight wins), Benton Community (18-9, 12 wins in the last 14 games) and Solon (14-10, after starting 2-5).

Class 3A

Regional quarterfinals: July 6.

Regional semifinals: July 9.

Regional finals: July 12.

The Girls Union tries its best to separate the top eight ranked teams for the postseason, but in this case, it might be impossible. There are just too many powers in southeast Iowa.

Start with top-rated Mount Vernon (24-2), followed by No. 2 Davenport Assumption (15-5), No. 3 Williamsburg (19-8), No. 4 West Liberty (13-3) and No. 5 Northeast (16-6).

Add No. 8 West Burlington (15-4) and No. 10 Davis County (11-4), and that’s a glut of top-level teams in a small geographic area.

It would be sensible to send Mount Vernon northwest, with Williamsburg going southwest, along with — perhaps — No. 13 Albia and/or No. 15 Chariton.

Northeast’s bracket probably will be to, well, the northeast, with Dubuque Wahlert the tallest hurdle. That might leave Assumption and West Burlington in one region in the southeast corner, West Liberty and Davis County in another.

Class 2A

Regional first round: July 1.

Regional quarterfinals: July 6.

Regional semifinals: July 8.

Regional finals: July 11.

The trick, in our area, is splitting the trio of No. 5 Iowa City Regina (12-9), No. 6 Wilton (19-5) and No. 7 Louisa-Muscatine (17-5).

Our projection is that Regina — the Gazette area’s lone ranked 2A team — goes westward, in a bracket with No. 12 East Marshall (17-5). Either Wilton or Louisa-Muscatine would go to the southeast corner while the other would stretch north, toward Alburnett (15-12) and Cascade (11-8).

Class 1A

Regional first round: July 1.

Regional quarterfinals: July 6.

Regional semifinals: July 8.

Regional finals: July 11.

Top-ranked North Linn (21-5) and No. 3 Lisbon (24-3) battled to a Tri-Rivers Conference split last Thursday at Troy Mills, and both are sure to remain in the top three. Thus, both are likely to receive manageable paths to Fort Dodge.

With strikeout pitchers Carly Goodwin and Sara Reid, No. 11 Sigourney (16-5) and No. 13 Central City (23-5) are teams that nobody wants to see in their bracket.

The guess here is that Sigourney will be in the same bracket as No. 7 Twin Cedars (18-1), and Central City will be placed with the lower-ranked team between North Linn and Lisbon in Thursday’s rankings.

No. 9 Clarksville (13-0) is another potential hurdle to the north, and Springville (17-8) and Highland (12-7) can hang with anybody on a given night.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com