Chaparral: The No. 1 seed in 5A softball’s state tournament. More photos. (Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)
AURORA — The state softball brackets were released on Monday, with Chaparral, Wheat Ridge and Strasburg each garnering top seeds in their respective classifications.
Play begins on Friday at the Aurora Sports Park, and completes with semifinals and championship games on Saturday. Tickets are available on TicketLeap.
Chaparral (18-3) went unbeaten in winning Class 5A’s Region 8 last weekend. Included was a dramatic 13-12 win in eight innings over Pomona, which also qualified out of Region 8.
The Wolverines have won 13 of their past 14 games.
Other top seeds in 5A include No. 2 Brighton, No. 3 Broomfield, No. 4 Mountain Range and No. 5 Rocky Mountain. Grandview, the defending champion, is No. 11.
The Jeffco and Front Range League each has five qualifiers to the 5A tournament. The Centennial qualified three, the Continental two and the EMAC one.
Find the complete 5A state bracket here.
Wheat Ridge is the top seed in the 4A bracket. More photos. (Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
Wheat Ridge maintained the No. 1 spot from regional seeding in 4A. The Farmers (16-5) are riding a seven-game winning streak. They qualified out of Region 1.
Also seeded highly in 4A are No. 2 Erie, No. 3 Valor Christian, No. 4 Mountain View and No. 5 Air Academy. Valor Christian is the defending champion.
The Pikes Peak Athletic Conference and Tri-Valley league each had four qualifiers to the 4A tournament. The Northern had three, Jeffco and South-Central had two, and Denver Prep had one.
The full 4A bracket is available here.
Strasburg, too, held on to the No. 1 seed from regionals. The team is unbeaten this season at 20-0, and was runner-up last season.
Other high seeds in 3A include No. 2 La Junta — the defending champion — No. 3 Sterling, No. 4 Rocky Ford and No. 5 Brush.
District 3 led the 12-team 3A field with five qualifiers. District 2 had four, District 1 had two and District 5 had one.