Heading into Thursday’s Monroe County Softball Tournament in Waterloo, three of the four high school teams have records above .500.

Columbia continues its impressive spring, shutting out recent opponents Wesclin and Carlyle while scoring plenty of runs.

The Eagles (16-2) blasted Wesclin last Tuesday, 18-0. Kelly Metter went 2-for-3 with a home run and five RBIs to pace a balanced offensive attack. Rachel Garcia — who leads the team with a .563 average and eight home runs — and Taryn Pena added three hits each.

On Wednesday, Columbia blanked Carlyle 9-0 behind a one-hit pitching performance from Brianna Weilbacher. She struck out 15 Carlyle batters. Her sister, Courtney Weilbacher, went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate for good measure.

Columbia played Red Bud on Tuesday and will take part in Thursday’s county softball tourney before hosting Quincy Notre Dame on Friday.

Waterloo (12-4) bounced back from a tough 3-0 conference loss last Tuesday against Triad by defeating Mascoutah on Wednesday, 8-5.

Kasey Bradley went 3-for-4 at the plate; Madison Kruse added two hits. Bradley is leading the ‘Dogs on the mound (10-3, 1.19 ERA) and plate (.408 batting average) this spring. Kruse is hitting .395 this spring.

The Bulldogs play at Triad on Wednesday, the county tourney on Thursday and at Althoff on Saturday.

Gibault has suffered some tough losses of late but is still over .500 at 11-8. The Hawks took Collinsville to extra innings on Wednesday, but fell 11-9 in a nine-inning heartbreaker.

Noelle Davis went 3-for-6 with a home run, and Lauren Prader went 1-for-1 with five walks.

Davis and Prader were at it again on Saturday, as the Hawks won two of three games in a Nashville tourney. Davis had seven hits in the three games, and Prader hit her seventh home run of the

season.

Prader is leading the team with a .574 batting average, followed by Davis at .439.

Valmeyer, meanwhile, lost recent games against Dupo, Wood River and Steeleville. Paige Bangle has been a bright spot offensively for the Pirates, hitting .278 with one home run.

Dupo keeps winning

The Dupo softball team is 18-5 on the season following recent wins against Valmeyer, Wesclin and New Athens.

Taylor Esmon collected three hits against both Valmeyer and Wesclin. Dupo defeated Valmeyer 13-0 and won 11-2 against Wesclin.

Megan Brown went 2-for-5 against Wesclin with a home run and four RBIs.

Brown allowed one hit on the mound and had three hits of her own in Thursday’s 11-0 win against New Athens. Amber Mobbs and Skylure Barlow added three hits each in the win.

Rachael Donald leads the team in hitting at .514, followed by Brown at .486 and Esmon at .432.

The Tigers have games against Marissa, Breese Central and Lebanon this week.