Glen Este’s Brooke Parker will lead the Lady Trojans after receiving the No. 3 overall seed in Division I.

Glen Este’s Brooke Parker will lead the Lady Trojans after receiving the No. 3 overall seed in Division I.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

Guaranteeing at least of a share of the Eastern Cincinnati Conference title for the second consecutive year, the Milford Lady Eagles fly into the sectional tournament with momentum garnered from a regular season well played.

Milford was awarded the No. 4 overall seed in Southwest Ohio Division I at the May 3 seed meeting.

Interestingly, Glen Este, who needed to win two games this week on Wednesday (at Loveland) and Thursday (at Kings) to join Milford atop the ECC table, was seeded above the Lady Eagles, garnering the No. 3 seed. Seeds are determined by coach’s votes.

The Lady Trojans selected a first-round bye and will face the winner of (12) Western Brown and (16) Colerain in the sectional semifinals on Wednesday, May 13.

The draw meeting, which features all participating coaches from softball’s four divisions, gives the highest seeded teams the opportunity to pick their spot on the bracket, with the next highest seed following suit, then the third highest seed and so on.

At any point, if a team chooses to pass, the next highest seed will choose their spot in the bracket with the team that passed having the opportunity to go next before going down the line.

In essence, the higher seeded teams are picked as opponents by lower seeded teams and match ups are not necessarily predetermined strictly by seed. That means the second seed could theoretically choose to play the No. 1 seed in the first round.

The Lady Eagles, who went 19-6 — and still have two games on their schedule — will face the winner of (11) Turpin and (18) St. Ursula on Wednesday, May 13.

Milford defeated Turpin twice already this season, a 2-1 win on April 23 and a 4-3 win on April 27.

On the other side of Glen Este’s Cincinnati 4 sectional, the Southern Buckeye Conference’s Amelia Lady Barons have drawn the No. 14 seed and a first-round match up with (15) Little Miami.

The Lady Barons have a pair of regular-season league games remaining, which will determine if they finish second or third place in the division.

In Division II, Goshen was given the top seed among locals at No. 2. The Lady Warriors — who could swap with Amelia and move to second place depending on this week’s results — were sought out by No. 4 McNicholas for a first-round match up. The winner will host (8) Indian Hill on Thursday, May 14.

Should the Lady Warriors advance to the sectional finals, as their seeding would suggest, they could face Batavia, the No. 10 seed.

The Lady Bulldogs will have to pull off a pair of upsets if they are to play for a sectional crown. They begin with (5) Wilmington on May 12 and would face (3) Northwest in the sectional semis on May 14.

Division III is headed up by a pair of local teams in No. 1-seeded Williamsburg and No. 2 Bethel-Tate. On opposite sides of the sectional, the earliest the two teams would face one another would be in the regional finals.

Burg has won at least a share of the SBC-National Division crown and could own the outright title depending on this week’s results.

The Lady Wildcats play (12) Purcell on May 11 and could face (10) North College Hill in the sectional semis on May 13.

Bethel could play themselves into a share of second place in the league this week. Next week, they will play (4) Roger Bacon in the first round on May 11 and then possibly (9) Clark Montessori on May 13.

Lastly, in Division IV, Felicity-Franklin, the current second-place team in the SBC-National, could have solidified their runner-up status with a win at Blanchester on May 6. That result was not available at press time.

In the sectional, Felicity was awarded the top seed and will host (5) Fayetteville on May 12. A win and the Lady Cards will host (6) Seven Hills on May 14.

All games will be played at 5 p.m. and hosted by the higher seeded team. Complete tournament brackets for all four divisions can be found on swdab.org.