Broomfield, Windsor and University claimed the top seeds at this weekend’s regional tournaments.
The Eagles won their 42nd straight in-state game in the regular season as University of Iowa pitching commit Ireland Heer outdueled Stanford’s Emmaline Humphreys in Broomfield’s 2-1 win over 4A No. 3 Holy Family on Saturday.

The Wizards remained 4A’s No. 1 despite a 4-0 loss to Holy Family in its final game of the season. Before that, they’d won 21 straight in-state games this fall, touting wins over 5A No. 3 Columbine, No. 5 Eaglecrest and the third-seeded Tigers in their first meeting of the season.

University, meanwhile, won its last 11 games of the season. None were more important than its eight-inning, 8-7 win over No. 2 Eaton at the start of the month.

But for today’s look-in on softball, let’s take a look at a few lower-ranked teams that could make some noise and possibly make it to next week’s state tournament at Aurora Sports Park.

Class 5A

No. 18 Arvada West: The Wildcats were seeded 11th this time last year but didn’t make it out of eventual champ Riverdale Ridge’s region.

Ace Morgan Farr is back from that team and has been even better than she was last season, touting a 2.64 ERA across 124 2/3 innings.

They’re in No. 2 Cherokee Trail’s region and will face No. 15 Horizon in their first game. In August, they rallied from four runs down to beat the Hawks 13-8. Farr drove in three runs.

No. 19 Rock Canyon: The Jaguars were the 22nd seed at regionals last year when they beat Arvada West twice to reach the state tournament.

This season, they’re coming into the postseason playing well and winners of their last five.

They finished second to No. 6 Legend in the 5A/4A Continental League and head into Columbine’s region this weekend.

Class 4A

No. 28 Discovery Canyon: The Thunder finished the season with a 6-5 loss at Pueblo Central and will now face the fifth-seeded Wildcats in the first game at regionals.

Perhaps the 28 seed can lean on the fact that they had a 5-2 lead on the Wildcats in the fifth inning last week before letting PC rally for the win.

This fall, Discovery Canyon has proven it can play with just about anybody in the state … if the day is right. It lost by a single run to 4A No. 1 Windsor and No. 7 Cheyenne Mountain during the year. It beat 5A No. 19 Rock Canyon 11-0.

No. 29 Mesa Ridge: The Grizzlies have been rolling since their 7-4 win at No. 7 Cheyenne Mountain on Sept. 27. After that win, they scored in double figures in the remaining six games of the season.

Junior Nahlia Zunk has led the charge, going 12 of 19 from the plate over her last five games. The Grizzlies are in No. 4 Lutheran’s region.

Class 3A

No. 25 Bennett: One of the things that should concern No. 8 Sterling’s region is Bennett freshman Macy Meyer.

A good question: How do you get her out?

Meyer is hitting .667 (22nd-best in the nation this fall) and has an on-base percentage of .773 (15th best).

If the Tigers can find any consistency in the circle (which has been an issue), they have the bats to stay with almost anybody. Meyer leads six players hitting over .400 this season, including senior Jagoda Gutowska at .618.

No. 29 Sand Creek: The Scorpions started the season 1-9 but finished fairly well, sporting an 8-15 record heading into No. 4 Forge Christian’s region.

They won five of their last six games, including two against No. 30 Florence. Jaida Moody hit two home runs against the Huskies and has gone deep four times in her last six games.