Buckeye, Cloverleaf learn softball tournament draws

Tournament time comes quickly in the short spring season. Last weekend, most area schools found out who, when and where they will play. The rest will learn those details soon enough.

The following is a look at where local schools will head for their tournament play:

Division III: Buckeye is No. 4 overall and Highland is seeded 28th out of 46 schools in six Northeast districts.

Buckeye gets a bye into the District 5 semifinals. The Bucks (15-5) will play at 5 p.m. May 19 against either No. 26 Parma Padua Franciscan (8-9) or No. 34 Bedford (4-6), who meet May 14. Should Buckeye win, it would move to a 5 p.m. district final May 21. Youngstown Ursuline (11-5), at No. 8 overall, is the highest-seeded team in the other half of Buckeye’s bracket.

Highland (5-12) will start postseason play at 5 p.m. May 14 at No. 15 Westlake (11-5) in a Northeast 2 sectional contest. The winner will play May 19 at 5 p.m. in a district semifinal against either No. 9 Youngstown Boardman (10-7) or No. 45 Youngstown East (4-10). That winner will advance to the May 21 district final. The top seed in the other half of the bracket is No. 5 Midview (16-5).

Division IV: Cloverleaf earned the No. 17 seed among the 34 teams in the five Northeast Ohio districts. The Colts (10-7) are in the Northeast 1 sectional/district and will begin with a May 14 home sectional game against No. 28 Villa Angela-St. Joseph. First pitch is at 5 p.m. The winner will face either No. 7 Alliance Marlington (13-5) or No. 30 Ravenna (2-13) at 5 p.m. May 19 in a district semifinal. The district final for the Colts’ bracket is at 5 p.m. May 21. Overall No. 1 seed Elyria Catholic (16-3) is the team most likely to emerge from the other half of the bracket.

Division I: Medina (13-5) will compete in the Northeast Division I district. With Divisions I and II having fewer schools (20 and 31, respectively, in Northeast Ohio) than the smaller divisions throughout the state, their postseasons are shorter and therefore start later. The Division I and II seeds and brackets will be announced Sunday. Medina headed into the week ranked No. 6 in the district by MaxPreps. Austintown Fitch (17-0) held the No. 1 overall ranking.

Medina entered the week at 5-1 in the Greater Cleveland Conference. The Bees were trailing Mentor by one game, following a 9-2 road loss to the Cardinals on April 16. The teams are scheduled to meet again in Medina May 11 at 5 p.m.

Senior Ryan Allar was leading the Bees in hitting with a .509 average through 16 games and 57 at-bats. Allar had a team-best 25 RBIs and seven triples. Katie Rubino was hitting .486 with a team-leading 14 extra-base hits and 33 runs, also tops on the squad.

Records are through May 3, and seeds were determined by MaxPreps RPI rankings based on a computerized format.

Brackets for all seven baseball divisions will be seeded and filled out Sunday.