Typically the team to beat every year for the Sac-Joaquin Section's Division I softball championship hails from Elk Grove. Over the past seven years the champion has been Sheldon (four times), Elk Grove (once), Pleasant Grove (once) or Franklin (once).
[The Division I SJS Softball Playoff Brackets]
This season Sheldon and Franklin will have to play on Tuesday in a single elimination "out bracket" game before they can advance to the Sacramento Softball Complex on May 18 and open the rest of the crowd. The Huskies, the two-time defending champions, will face Napa at Mary Jo Truesdale Field at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The winner will advance and take on West Saturday.
Franklin will take on Lodi on the road Tuesday. The winner of that contest plays Vintage.
Elk Grove won the Delta Valley Conference championship this year by trouncing Davis 11-1 in five innings on Wednesday.
Pleasant Grove with its 14-0 shutout of Folsom Tuesday took the Delta River League championship.
Those wins earned both squads a bye to the tournament's Saturday opening round.
If you want to believe polls, the top teams this season in D-I may be in the Sierra Football League. As in baseball, those clubs have been moved up this spring from Division II.
Woodcreek, Rocklin and Roseville have been atop most of the local softball polls all year with Elk Grove ranked behind them.
If one of those clubs grab the Division I crown this spring, it will be the first time a non-EGUSD team has won the softball banner since Vacaville did so in 2005.
The blog site of John Hull, longtime Elk Grove-area sports writer and columnist.
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