The official District 3 softball championship brackets were released Thursday afternoon. The top seeds across the four classification are Daniel Boone in Class AAAA, Greencastle-Antrim in AAA, Brandywine Heights in AA and Millersburg in Class A. The opening day for all AAAA, AAA and AA play is Tuesday, May 20. Single A starts on May 22.
Click here for the complete brackets: Class AAAA | Class AAA | Class AA | Class A
CLASS AAAA
Daniel Boone's undefeated season came to an abrupt end Wednesday night with a 2-0 loss in the Berks County championship to Class AA top seed Brandywine Heights. But the Blazers' stellar regular season was enough to earn the big school No. 1 seed. Boone, 2013's D3-AAAA runner-up, will face Mid-Penn upstart CD East in round one at Muhlenburg High School.
The highest Mid-Penn Class AAAA seed is Mid-Penn Keystone champ Lower Dauphin. They will face the defending District 3 Class AAAA champs Central Dauphin at Messiah College in their opener which pits No. 7 against No. 10.
Three additional Mid-Penn conference squads — No. 8 Cumberland Valley, No. 12 Chambersburg and No. 14 Mechanicsburg — will open play Tuesday.
Lancaster-Lebanon Section 1 titleist Manheim Twp. is the L-L's highest-ranked team at No. 4. They are joined by league playmates No. 9 Warwick and No. 11 Hempfield and L-L crossover cohorts No. 5 Elizabethtown and No. 6 Solanco from Section 2.
For the complete bracket click here.
CLASS AAA
Class AAA is a Mid-Penn Colonial party and speaks to the strength of the District's westernmost league. Defending AAA champ and Colonial crown holder Greencastle-Antrim sits at No. 1 with three league rivals just below. Shippensburg is poised on the same side of the Blue Devils' bracket at No. 4 and will face Palmyra in round one.
The other two Colonial squads — James Buchanan (No. 6) and Big Spring (No. 7) — are in the bottom half of the bracket. The Rockets square off against West York in the opener while the Bulldogs will tackle Muhlenburg. The bracket draw make an all-Colonial Final Four a possibility.
Lancaster-Lebanon champ Lampeter-Strasburg, the No. 2 seed, will have something to say about that as will the L-L runner-up Donegal, Class AAA's No. 3. The Indians will face No. 14 Northern York to open play. No. 9 Middletown rounds out the local contingent.
For the complete bracket click here.
CLASS AA
Berks County champ and two-time defending D3-AA crown holder Brandywine Heights will be difficult to unseat. Among the challengers to the top-seeded Bullets will be Mid-Penn Capital champs, No. 2 Susquenita, and last year's Class AA runner-up Pequea Valley.
The Blackhawks will place the winner between the all-Harrisburg Diocese affair between No. 7 Bishop McDevitt and No. 10 Trinity on May 20 at Adams County's New Oxford High School. The No. 3 Braves, the L-L's Section 4 champ, open play in round two on May 22 against No. 6 Kutztown.
The entire tourney's lone Lebanon County representative, No. 5 Annville-Cleona, get a bye to round two where they will face Delone.
For the complete bracket click here.
CLASS A
Class A is yet again an all-Tri-Valley League jamboree. Top-seed Millersburg goes against defending champ Greenwood on May 22 while No. 2 Upper Dauphin tackles No. 3 Halifax.
For the complete bracket click here.