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THE POWER RANKINGS: Dripping Springs remains on top of frozen in Austin area baseball poll
Our Top 4 teams in this week’s Power Rankings are all 6A powerhouses. Too bad the new playoff format takes away the opportunity for them all to meet in the playoffs. Round Rock or Lake Travis, for instance, could win the 6A Division 1 state title while Dripping Springs or Westlake could go all the way in 6A Division 2. But they wouldn’t meet to decide who’s really king of the hill. Such a shame.
So, you’ll just have to lean on the Power Rankings to solve this little mystery for you.
That sounds silly even to us – but then again, this penultimate poll of the year shows remarkable stability. In fact, none of the top 11 teams suffered a single loss last week. Then-12th-ranked Hays were defeated twice, albeit it to powerful #5 Liberty Hill, and dropped a spot behind Weiss. Similarly, Stony Point suffered two crushing close losses to #2 Round Rock but remained in 14th as #15 Georgetown suffered two close losses to 6A powers Dripping Springs and Cedar Ridge.
In other words, the Rankings are calcifying like fossils heading into this final week of the regular season which will see Drip face Westlake and Round Rock clashing with Vandegrift with district titles on the line. We’ll be back one more time next week to see how it all sorts out.
VYPE's Austin Baseball Rankings
1. (1) Dripping Springs Tigers (6A) 18-8 (Def. #15 Georgetown; def. McCallum)
2. (2) Round Rock Dragons (6A) 22-5-1 (Swept #14 Stony Point)
3. (3) Westlake Chaparrals (6A) 21-4-1 (Swept Del Valle)
4. (4) Lake Travis Cavaliers (6A) 15-9-3 (Swept Akins)
5. (5) Liberty Hill Panthers (5A) 20-6 (Swept #12 Hays)
6. (6) Buda Johnson Jaguars (6A) 19-7 (Swept Cibolo Steele)
7. (7) Cedar Ridge Raiders (6A) 18-8 (Def. McCallum; def. #15 Georgetown)
8. (8) Vandegrift Vipers (6A) 21-6 (Swept Westwood)
9. (9) Rouse Raiders (5A) 19-7-2 (Swept Lehman)
10. (10) Anderson Trojans (5A) 19-6 (Swept Bastrop)
11. (11) San Marcos Rattlers (6A) 20-7-1 (Swept New Braunfels)
12. (13) Weiss Wolves (5A) 16-6-2 (Swept Pflugerville)
13. (12) Hays Hawks (5A) 16-9-1 (Swept by #5 Liberty Hill)
14. (14) Stony Point Tigers (6A) 14-14-1 (Swept by #2 Round Rock)
15. (15) Georgetown (5A) 13-11-1 (L @ #1 Dripping Springs; L @ #7 Cedar Ridge)
THE POWER RANKINGS: Johnson, Liberty Hill, Cedar Ridge still perched atop Austin area Softball chart
Buda Johnson, Liberty Hill and Cedar Ridge survived the week unscathed and remained atop this week’s softball Power Rankings – but they’d better be watching their mirrors.
Dripping Springs has climbed to fourth in the poll after defeating #9 Lake Travis, #8 Del Valle and Weiss. (The Lady Wolves were unrated at the time but have since cracked this week’s poll at #15 with wins over Little Rover Academy and an impressive win over now-#7 Georgetown.) Bowie entered the Top 5 and Stony Point also moved up after both teams swept their opponents.
Del Valle remained at #8 despite their loss to Dripping Springs, largely because the teams immediately behind them – Lake Travis, Leander and Bastrop – split their weeks and couldn’t completely take advantage. East View and Rouse each moved up a spot as Westlake fell out of the Rankings.
Here are the Rankings heading into the final week of the regular season.
VYPE's Austin Softball Rankings
1. (1) Buda Johnson Lady Jaguars (6A) 20-4-1 (Def. East Central; Def. Judson)
2. (2) Liberty Hill (5A) 20-4-1 (Def. Lehman; Def. Hays)
3. (3) Cedar Ridge Lady Raiders (6A) 17-3 (Def. Hutto)
4. (5) Dripping Springs (6A) 22-6-1 (Def. #9 Lake Travis; Def. #8 Del Valle; Def. Weiss)
5. (6) Bowie (6A) 15-7 (Def. Westlake; Def. Akins)
6. (7) Stony Point Lady Tigers (6A) 18-5-1 (Def. Vandegrift; Def. McNeil)
7. (4) Georgetown Lady Eagles (5A) 18-9-1 (Def. Hendrickson; L @ Weiss)
8. (8) Del Valle (6A) 14-5-1 (L @ #6 Dripping Springs)
9. (9) Lake Travis Lady Cavaliers (6A) 16-9-1 (L vs. #5 Dripping Springs; Def. Westlake)
10. (10) Leander Lady Lions (5A) 18-9 (L @ #15 Rouse; Def. Lockhart)
11. (11) Bastrop Lady Bears (5A) 16-7-1 (L @Crockett; Def. Anderson)
12. (12) Round Rock Lady Dragons (6A) 12-8 (Def. McNeil; Def. Westwood)
13. (14) East View Lady Patriots (5A) 15-7 (Def. Connally)
14. (15) Rouse Lady Raiders (5A) 15-9-2 (Def. #10 Leander; Def. Lehman)
15. (NR) Weiss Lady Wolves (5A) 16-10 (Def. Little River Academy; Def. #4 Georgetown; L @ #6 Dripping Springs)