Though they've played just six games this spring and haven't been able to practice on a consistent basis, the Naylor Lady Eagles are back on top of this year's Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament softball bracket.
Rain has wreaked havoc on Naylor's schedule, but the five-time tournament champs and three-time defending conference champs remain undefeated in conference play, earning them the top seed in the OFC Tournament, which starts Monday and concludes with the championship game Thursday, April 20.
While previous tournaments have been held at Rains Field on the campus of Three Rivers College, this year's contest had to be moved to Doniphan High School due to scheduling conflicts with the Lady Raiders, who are trying to make up games next week.
"Like everybody else, we haven't gotten to play much and we haven't practiced on our field in over two weeks, but the girls seem ready," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "I think they're just anxious to just get out there and play."
The Lady Eagles (2-4, 1-0 OFC) have been the No. 1 seed in six of the past seven years and will await the winner of fourth-seeded Greenville and fifth-seeded Doniphan in the semifinals at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Other quarterfinal matchups include No. 2 East Carter vs. No. 7 Twin Rivers at 4 p.m. Monday followed by No. 3 Clearwater and No. 6 Neelyville at 6.
In last year's tournament, Naylor edged East Carter 2-1 to meet Neelyville in the finals for the third straight year. The Lady Tigers avenged a demoralizing 11-10 loss in 2015 with a dominant 10-3 victory to claim the title for the first time last year.
The Lady Eagles would like to return the favor this year.
With the loss of seven seniors to graduation, Neelyville (4-6, 0-1), the defending champion, is a much different looking team.
Neelyville will have to get past Clearwater (8-5, 2-1) in a rematch of their opening conference game which Clearwater won 15-0 in four innings.
The Clearwater Lady Tigers opened conference play with a 9-0 victory over Doniphan and beat Greenville 11-10 on a walk-off hit in the Swing Pink Tournament last weekend. An 8-4 loss to East Carter on Tuesday likely hurt their chance at a higher seed, but the Lady Tigers are still averaging 10 runs a game so far this season.
"We're a pretty good team when we want to be," Clearwater coach Shannon England said. "We've played a lot of games in the last week and our offense has been on a roll."
Greenville (5-4, 1-0) made the biggest jump this season, going from the No. 7 seed to No. 4.
The Lady Bears started the season 3-0 before a loss to Scott City snapped that streak. They beat East Carter 6-4 to open conference play, but like most teams have had four games postponed due to rain.
"One bad inning has seemed to hurt us lately, but if we show up and play we can hang with anybody," Greenville coach Olivia O'Dell said. "Offensively we've scored more runs than any other year that I've had here. If we hit and eliminate some defensive issues, we'll be fine."
Doniphan (5-7, 1-1), which used two walk-off wins to take third in last year's tournament, bounced back from its first conference loss to beat Twin Rivers 8-6 back on March 30 and has won three of its last four. The Donettes are 12-17 since the start of the fall season, with nine of those losses coming by one run.
"We've been in just about every game we've played and of all the games we've played this fall and spring," Doniphan coach Brad Eddington said. "On any given day I think anybody can beat anybody in this conference. It's the drop of a hat."
A slow start to the season, in which they gave up 47 runs in their first five games and lost senior starting pitcher Andrea Kearbey to injury, hurt East Carter (5-5, 2-2). But the Lady Redbirds have since bounced back, winning five straight, including Tuesday's two-run victory over Clearwater.
The Lady Redbirds open tournament play against Twin Rivers (4-5, 0-3), a team they've beaten three straight times.
"We started out slow when Andrea got hurt and our confidence has been low with a freshman pitcher," East Carter coach Andrea Kearbey said. "It's been tough, but we're starting to get our confidence back."
Semifinal winners advance to the championship game at 6 p.m. Thursday prior to the third-place game at 4 p.m.
Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for students each day.