This weekend, five area high school softball teams will try to earn a spot in next week’s state championship tournament in Sulphur in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

Action gets underway tonight when the No. 3 Sam Houston Broncos host No. 6 Walker in nonselect Division I. The Broncos (28-2) beat No. 19 Haughton 14-1 in the regionals. Walker (18-9) advanced with a 7-1 win over No. 11 Airline.

The Broncos have mashed the ball all year, reaching double-digit run totals in 18 of 30 games, including nine of their last 12 games. Sam Houston is in search of its second consecutive trip to the semifinals and ninth since 2009. Both the Broncos and Walker lost in the semifinals last year.

Walker beat Sam Houston 8-2 in Moss Bluff in a 2019 quarterfinal game.

Broncos head coach Beth Domingue said the Wildcats offense will present a challenge.

“They are ready to hit, a team that’s aggressive with balls in the zone,” she said. “(In the regional round) we hit balls hard. And we made good offensive adjustments when they switched pitchers. We attacked early in the game.”

Saturday

No. 4 Iowa (20-9) will host No. 5 Brusly (28-6) in a nonelect Division II game at 1 p.m. Iowa advanced in dramatic style, beating Iota 5-3 on a Kamryn Broussard walk-off home run in the regionals. Brusly cruised by No. 10 Minden 10-0.

The homer was Broussard’s 20th of the season.

“She is just a clutch player,” Iowa head coach Kenzie Singletary said. “She locks in when she knows there is a job that needs to be done. She’s going to make it happen.”

Singletary said her team will need to be better at the plate against Brusly. The Yellow Jackets have a deep batting order.

“Leah Cox has been hitting well lately, particularly with situational hitting,” she said. “She has really stepped up this year. Kylie Boudreaux has had a good season and has made great plays in the outfield.”

The Yellow Jackets reached the state championship game in each of the last two seasons.

Elsewhere

No. 13 Rosepine (16-12) will host No. 5 Jena (17-14) at 4 p.m. in a Division III game. The Eagles earned the home game with a road win over No. 4 Kinder in the regionals.

In Division IV, No. 5 DeQuincy (20-8) will play at No. 4 French Settlement (21-10) at 5 p.m. and No. 7 Oakdale (20-7) will play at No. 2 Montgomery (24-8) at 2 p.m.