Alexandria, White Plains pull down top two softball seeds, Donoho sweeps soccer seeds; pairings and schedules listed below
By Al Muskewitz
WEAVER – Alexandria and White Plains are without question the strongest softball teams in the county this season and deservedly pulled down the top two seeds in the Calhoun County Tournament that starts Monday at Woodland Park.
One by one the other spots in the bracket were being penciled into their slots. Three, four fairly easily. Five, six with a little discussion. All of a sudden, a glaring omission rose to the surface.
What of Oxford? The Lady Jackets had never been out of the top four seeds since East Alabama Sports Today began tracking the seed meetings in 2015 and twice in that stretch had been the No. 1. But without much discussion on their case, they slipped to the eighth seed, setting up a potential matchup with top-seeded Alexandria in the second round.
The Lady Jackets are only 4-12-2 and 0-3 within the county, but they are the largest school in the county and play a high-level schedule. Their three in-county losses have come to the top two seeds in the tournament, twice to Alexandria.
“I think probably they should be up a couple spots,” Alexandria coach Brian Hess said. “It kind of shocked me they fell to No. 8, but there’s no common opponents there and you’re not going to have common opponents so it’s going to be an argument back and forth because they play a whole difference schedule than most of these folks do.”
“We’ve played Oxford and their pitcher does a good job; I just think their strength of schedule should have been considered more,” White Plains coach Rachel Ford said. “I know the other teams that got seeded above them are having a good year, too, so it’ll all come out in the wash and work itself out.”
Alexandria (27-6) is the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight year they’ve had the tournament, missing out only in 2020 when all the county championships after March 20 were canceled due to COVID.
“It’s always nice to be selected the 1 seed, but everything’s got to play out,” Alexandria coach Brian Hess said. “White Plains has a great team; Piedmont, Pleasant Valley does too. It’s just kind of strange seeing how the board ended up and people shuffling around.”
White Plains (21-4) pulled down its highest tournament seed since 2015, the last time it was No. 1. The Lady Wildcats have been seeded anywhere from third to eighth since. This year they’re the second winningest team in the county and own the most in-county wins (6-0).
Piedmont (11-7) is third, Pleasant Valley (16-11-1) is fourth and host Weaver (11-9) earned the fifth seed over Jacksonville (15-15-1) despite losing to the Lady Golden Eagles earlier in the year.
“We’ve had a good season and I truly believe in my team and I think we have the potential to do big things this year, but I know Alexandria plays aa very strong schedule and I definitely think they deserve a 1 seed, too,” Ford said. “I think it was seeded the correct way.
“Even though we’re the 2 seed that doesn’t mean we’ll finish 2. There are some teams that could come beat us because we have a very strong county, always have in softball. Seeding, it doesn’t mean much, I think it all comes out whether you play well or not.”
With inclement weather due in the middle the week, tournament operators have altered the original schedule in a big-time way. Fourteen games are now scheduled for Monday, with the Tuesday and Wednesday schedule scrapped. The tournament resumes Thursday at Woodland Park, with only Friday’s semifinals and finals moving to Jacksonville State.
Donoho sweeps soccer seeds
Donoho’s dually undefeated boys and girls soccer teams – unprecedentedly undefeated this late in the season – nailed down the top seeds in the Calhoun County Tournament that now starts Monday as organizers look to beat the predicted incoming bad weather.
For the Donoho boys, 7-0 overall and 6-0 against in-county competition, the No. 1 seed was a goal. For the girls, 8-0 and 5-0 in-county, there was some doubt they’d pull down the No. 1 despite winning every one of the previous four tournament titles and allowing only one goal.
“We set out from the beginning, that was our No. 1 goal for this year, to become No. 1 going into the tournament,” Donoho boys coach Tim Melton said. “We wanted the No. 1 seed, we wanted the target on our back, we know we trained hard enough and we’ve got a deep enough team from seventh graders to seniors to be able to manage through that.”
The Falcons were the No. 1 seed for the first time last. They haven’t won the tournament since beating Oxford in the inaugural event in 2017. Oxford has won every title since, including a 5-4 overtime winner last year against Weaver.
The Yellow Jackets are 4-7 overall, 2-0 in the county. They are the No. 2 boys seed.
Donoho girls coach Jay Jenkins didn’t really know if his team would be installed as the top seed as it faces perhaps its greatest threat to its county tournament dynasty.
“It’s a valid argument for Oxford on both the boys and girls as the No. 1 seed,” Jenkins said. “They play bigger schools than we do, they play in a decidedly more difficult conference. If you look at the oxford girls, they just barely missing on big schools; they’re right on the edge.
“Oxford’s girls are absolutely on par with Donoho’s girls. I think that’s a toss-up. It was 2-0 last year (in the finals). It was a game. It’s been a game every time with Oxford. It will be this year, too, I’m sure of that – if we’re fortunate enough to get that far. We’ve got to get out of our half of the bracket still. We’ll see how it goes.”
Calhoun County Softball Tournament
(Records: county, overall)
At Woodland Park
Monday’s games
Game 1: No. 7 Ohatchee (4-4, 9-12-1) vs. No. 10 Saks (2-6, 5-21-1), 3 p.m. (F1)
Game 2: No. 6 Jacksonville (4-5, 15-15-1) vs. No. 11 Wellborn (0-1, 3-9), 3 p.m. (F2)
Game 3: No. 4 Pleasant Valley (3-4, 16-11-1) vs. No. 13 Faith Christian (0-2, 0-11), 3 p.m. (F3)
Game 4: No. 5 Weaver (4-4, 11-9) vs. No. 12 Anniston (1-1, 2-6), 3 p.m. (F4)
Game 5: No. 8 Oxford (0-3, 4-12-2) vs. No. 9 Jacksonville Christian (3-0, 7-3), 3 p.m. (F5)
Game 6: Ohatchee-Saks winner vs. No. 2 White Plains (6-0, 21-4), 4:30 p.m. (F1)
Game 7: Jacksonville-Wellborn winner vs. No. 3 Piedmont (4-2, 11-7), 4:30 p.m. (F2)
Game 8: Pleasant Valley-Faith winner vs. Weaver-Anniston winner, 4:30 p.m. (F3)
Game 9: Oxford-JCA winner vs. No. 1 Alexandria (3-0, 27-6), 4:30 p.m. (F4)
Game 10: Pleasant Valley-Faith loser vs. Weaver-Anniston loser, 4:30 p.m. (F5)
Game 11: Oxford-JCA loser vs. Loser 7, 6 p.m. (F2)
Game 12: Ohatchee-Saks loser vs. Loser 8, 6 p.m. (F3)
Game 13: Jacksonville-Wellborn loser 2 vs. Loser 9, 6 p.m. (F4)
Game 14: Winner 10 vs. Loser 6, 6 p.m. (F1)
Thursday’s games
Game 15: Winner 6 vs. Winner 7, 3 p.m. (F1)
Game 16: Winner 8 vs. Winner 9, 3 p.m. (F2)
Game 17: Winner 14 vs. Winner 11, 3 p.m. (F3)
Game 18: Winner 12 vs. Winner 13, 3 p.m. (F4)
Game 19: Loser 16 vs. Winner 17, 4:30 p.m. (F1)
Game 20: Winner 18 vs. Loser 15. 4:30 p.m. (F2)
Game 21: Winner 15 vs. Winner 16, 6 p.m. (F1)
Game 22: Winner 19 vs. Winner 20, 6 p.m. (F2)
At Jacksonville State
Friday’s games
Game 23: Loser 21 vs. Winner 22, 5 p.m.
Game 24: Championship game, 7 p.m.
Game 25: If necessary, 9 p.m.
Calhoun County Soccer Tournament
(Records: county, overall)
At McClellan
Monday’s games
Boys bracket
No. 4 Faith Christian (3-2, 6-3) vs. No. 5 Jacksonville (3-5, 5-5), 7 p.m. (F5)
No. 2 Oxford (2-0, 4-7) vs. No. 7 Weaver (1-7, 2-10), 7 p.m. (F2)
No. 3 White Plains (4-1, 6-3) vs. No. 6 Saks (1-2, 2-5-2), 7 p.m. (F3)
Girls bracket
No. 4 Jacksonville (3-3, 4-4) vs. No. 5 Saks (1-3, 3-4-2), 5 p.m. (F5)
No. 3 Weaver (3-3, 4-5-1) vs. No. 6 Faith Christian (1-3, 2-7), 5 p.m. (F3)
Thursday’s games
Boys bracket
Faith-Jacksonville winner vs. No. 1 Donoho (6-0, 7-0), 7 p.m. (F2)
Oxford-Weaver winner vs. White Plains-Saks winner, 7 p.m. (F5)
Girls bracket
Jacksonville-Saks winner vs. No. 1 Donoho (5-0, 8-0), 5 p.m. (F2)
Weaver-Faith winner vs. No. 2, 5 p.m. (F5)
Saturday’s games
Boys bracket
Championship game, 5 p.m. (F3)
Girls bracket
Championship game, 3 p.m. (F3) [*** read more]
