Bartlett could meet West Chicago again
If the Bartlett softball team is to get on a postseason run to a supersectional or beyond as it did last season, the Hawks will have to start that journey, as they did last year, through the DuPage Valley Conference.
The Hawks are seeded No. 6 in the Class 4A St. Charles North sectional complex and when they IHSA released pairings for the Class 3A and 4A postseason Friday, Bartlett found itself in the West Chicago regional. The Hawks will take on No. 11 Wheaton Warrenville South in one semifinal on Wednesday, May 26 and could meet the third-seeded host Wildcats in the May 29 championship game. The two met last year in a regional final with Bartlett winning 8-6.
South Elgin, the only other Fox Valley area team in the St. Charles North field, is the 17th seed and has been assigned to the Elk Grove regional, where the Storm will travel to No. 16 Glenbard West for a May 24 play-in game. The winner gets top-seeded Elk Grove, the No. 1 team in the Daily Herald Top 20, in the semifinals.
No. 2 seed St. Charles North is in the Willowbrook regional and No. 4 seed Lake Park is at Geneva.
The regional winners from Elk Grove and Geneva face each other in one sectional semifinal on June 2, while the winners from Willowbrook and West Chicago meet on June 3. The sectional final is June 5 and the winner advances to the 7 p.m. game of the Judson University supersectional to face the Huntley sectional champ.
The Huntley sectional is broken into four predetermined regionals because of the Rockford factor. Cary-Grove hosts its own regional and is the No. 1 seed, Rockton Hononegah is the top seed at its own regional, Huntley is No. 1 at its regional and Elgin is the top seed at the Streamwood regional.
Crystal Lake South is the No. 4 seed at Cary-Grove and will host Round Lake in a play-in game with the winner meeting the Trojans in one semifinal. The other semi is between No. 2 Grant and No. 3 McHenry.
At Huntley, the host Red Raiders meet No. 4 Rockford Jefferson in one semifinal with No. 2 Jacobs taking on No. 3 Dundee-Crown in the other semi.
And at Streamwood, Elgin will meet the host Sabres in one semifinal with No. 2 Larkin facing No. 3 Hoffman Estates in the other. Larkin knocked off Elgin in the regional semis last year before losing to South Elgin in the regional title game.
At the Huntley sectional, the regional winners from Cary-Grove and Streamwood meet in the first semifinal with the Huntley and Hononegah winners meeting in the other semi. Hononegah beat Huntley last year in a sectional semifinal.
In Class 3A Burlington Central, which finished third at the state tournament last year, is the No. 3 seed at the Hampshire regional and will meet No. 2 St. Francis in one semifinal. Top-seeded St. Viator will await the winner of a play-in game between Wheaton Academy and Hampshire in the other semi.
The Hampshire regional winner moves on to the DeKalb sectional to face the Sycamore regional winner. Kaneland is the top seed at Sycamore. Regional winners from Sandwich and Sterling also advance to DeKalb and the DeKalb sectional winner advances to the Marengo supersectional to face the Prairie Ridge sectional champ.