{"id":193549,"date":"2025-06-02T20:50:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T01:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=193549"},"modified":"2025-06-02T20:50:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T01:50:33","slug":"random-thoughts-softball-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/02\/random-thoughts-softball-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: softball and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This installment of Random Thoughts centers around OHSAA state softball, poll champions, a long tournament, a controversy that died down pretty quickly, the College Football Playoff, noon games, a waiting game and the Pacers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State softball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first year of the newly expanded state softball tournament, as the OHSAA has added three new divisions, V-VII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the seven divisions, there are apparently three undefeated teams: Springfield Kenton Ridge (30-0) in Division IV, Wheelersburg (26-0) in Division V, and Tri-Village (28-0) in Division VI. I said apparently because records of three teams were not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four teams in the tournament are known to have double digit losses: Dalton (17-10, Division VI), Sugarcreek Garaway (19-10), Massillon Perry (14-15), and Centerville (17-13). Perry is the only team at the state tournament with a losing record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poll champions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the seven softball divisions, four poll champions remain alive in the tournament: Anthony Wayne (Division II), Dover (Division III), Kenton Ridge (Division IV) and Liberty-Union (Division V). Three No. 2 teams are alive as well: Wheelersburg (Division V), Tri-Village (Division VI) and Portsmouth Notre Dame (Division VII).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long tournament<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s state softball tournament begins on Wednesday and runs through Sunday, so five full days. I don\u2019t want to think about what happens if there\u2019s a day or two of rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Controversy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know what controversy died down pretty quickly? The Pete Rose\/Hall of Fame controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a solid week, maybe more, after he was removed from baseball\u2019s ineligble list, that\u2019s all we saw and heard. Now, nothing, or at least very little. Maybe it\u2019s because he won\u2019t come up for a vote until 2027 and of course, the debate will start all over again. I still don\u2019t think he\u2019ll get in then, but someday he will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College Football Playoff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love college football, but the idea that the Big Ten and the SEC should each get four automatic bids to the College Football Playoff is ludicrous. I know it was an idea that was at least batted around but hopefully it doesn\u2019t even come up for a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noon games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people are still up in arms over a noon kickoff for Ohio State and Texas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What am I missing? What\u2019s wrong with noon games? I\u2019ve been to noon games, 3:30 games and night games at Ohio Stadium. Personally, I prefer noon or 3:30. Sure, night games can be fun but at least to me, there\u2019s not really that different than afternoon games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe I\u2019m just getting old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steelers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are the Steelers playing this waiting game with Aaron Rodgers? Yes, I know they need some help in the quarterback room, but they don\u2019t need it this bad. Why not give the guy a deadline and be prepared to move either way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indiana Pacers are considered heavy underdogs to Oklahoma City in the NBA Finals, but I\u2019m not counting them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do I think they\u2019ll win it all? Probably not. I can see OKC winning in five or six games, yet it\u2019s tough to discount the Pacers simply because of what they\u2019ve done in the playoffs to get to the finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts about any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This installment of Random Thoughts centers around OHSAA state softball, poll champions, a long tournament, a controversy that died down pretty quickly, the College Football Playoff, noon games, a waiting game and the Pacers. State softball This is the first year of the newly expanded state softball tournament, as the OHSAA has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 20:54:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193550,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193549\/revisions\/193550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}