A few observations as the Mississippi Athletic Conference softball regular season winds down in just six days…

• First, let's get you the opening regional matchups that will take place on July 11.

• In Class 4A, Region 7: Davenport North (2-12) visits Davenport West (3-11) for the right to play Iowa City High, while Davenport Central (1-13) heads to Muscatine (11-3) with the winner playing Burlington (8-6)

• In Class 4A, Region 8: Clinton (3-11) will have to get by Dubuque Hempstead at Eldridge if the River Queens want to play Bettendorf (11-3), and Pleasant Valley (9-5) hosts Dubuque Senior with the victor getting North Scott (12-0). So as you can see, the Bulldogs and Lancers have earned first-round byes and begin play Monday the 13th.

• Meanwhile, over in Class 3A, Davenport Assumption (8-4) will play Central Dewitt on the road in the Region 6 quarterfinals.

• All first pitches are at 7 p.m. throughout the regional draw, with the exception of PV-Senior that begins at 5 p.m. Click here if you'd like to follow the draws as your team advances, with each regional champion earning a state berth.

• Looking waaaaaay ahead, I will be covering the state softball tournament in Fort Dodge in late July, so I'm making an attempt to see every upper-echelon MAC squad play before regionals kick off in 10 days. So far, I've checked out Muscatine's sweep of West and Assumption's twinbill defeat of Central.

• The Muskies and Knights each feature one dominant hurler in a league of solid pitching: Kayla Gaunt and Alyson Spinas-Valainis, respectively. Gaunt is capable of throwing well over 100 pitches even in the hottest of days, and has yet to walk a batter in her 56 conference innings of work. What helps the Muskies is that Kassy Middagh is very effective on the mound as well.

• What about Spinas-Valainis? With her in the circle, it's been more difficult to put on a bat on a ball than it is to say her name five times fast. She leads the MAC with 77 strikeouts after mowing down 17 Central Blue Devils on Monday.

• Obviously, there are other aces out there that will be counted on to drive their teams through the postseason. North Scott's Brie Haycraft and Taylor Bender, Bettendorf's Morgan Lintz and Kelsey Rose, Pleasant Valley's Emily Hemming and Burlington's Ali Martin come to mind.

• North Scott small-balled its way to an 8-0 start, scoring more than three runs just once during that span. But now the bats are heating up, with 47 runs in its past four games. That's a scary thought heading into the postseason, considering the Lancers have yielded a total of seven runs in 12 MAC games.

• Even more impressive? No Lancer ranks in the top 12 for runs batted in. North Scott could be rounding into the most dangerous 1-through-9 lineup in the league.

• West coach Steve Saladino was pretty upset with his team after getting swept by Muscatine on June 22 and falling to 1-9 in the conference. Mainly (and loudly), he believed that his young team - one that starts three eight-graders and four freshmen - should be performing at a higher level.

• Well, the Falcons have a chance to salvage the year with a late-season burst; fol-lowing a sweep of North, Saladino's squad gets Clinton at home and could roll off a four-game winning streak before finishing up at second-place Bettendorf.

• Thursday's key games: Pleasant Valley at Muscatine (the Spartans can match the Muskies' record with a road sweep, but it'll be tough to knock down Gaunt in the opener) and Assumption at Burlington (same story for the Grayhounds: a sweep ties the teams up but that means going through Spinas-Valainis.)

• Monday's key games: Pleasant Valley at North Scott (could be a preview of a Region 8 semifinal on July 13.)

• Then Assumption and North Scott close things out with a makeup date on the 7th, in what will largely be a final tuneup for the state hopefuls before the postseason begins.