Hickory High and the rest of the CVAC

hitting

baseballman, you seem to know these two teams. Who is the better hitting team? HHS has Smith, Boliek, Hilton. FTF has Rothlin, Dice, King. Both defenses are pretty good?

 

2nite's game

Both teams are well-rounded. I like H's defense better. Baker is good behind the plate. H's top 4 hitters are consistent, but Rothlin's slider is tough to hit. Gibbs is a smart, sneaky pitcher. Walks very few. Both teams can hit the long ball. This one's a toss up. Depends on who shows up and who gets a break here and there.

 

Hickory has more consisten hitters. Smith is hitting .455 this year and Boliek is hitting .538 so they have more consistent hitters. King for Foard has shown no trouble hitting the long ball as he has 7 HR's this year I believe. Dice can also hit very well, he is Foard's most consistent hitter and then Rothlin is a pretty good hitter. Hilton has the most power for Hickory but a hurt ankle is slowing him down a little. Both teams are very good. I would give Hickory the edge in defense as they have a more experienced defense. Pitching is about equal, Rothlin throws harder than Gibbs but Gibbs has a bunch of movement and his ball sneaks up on you. Hitting- I would say they are pretty much even. So with that in mind, this should be one heck of a game. I am thinking 2-3 runs will be enough for the winning team.

 

Once again, Trent Rothlin was lights out for Fred T Foard (10 Ks/2 hits) - not to mention he had three hits of his own. :229031_ha


The Tigers had 10 hits, but could only muster 2 runs. This was probably the best defensive game played by the Tigers in quite a while. Each infielder made clutch plays - especially late in the game.


Hickory had chances, but could never get that big hit. The large crowd at HHS got it's moneys worth.

 

Mt. man , you were 1 inning off, score at the end of 3 innings was 2 to 0 foard and that was how it ended, good prediction.

 

Playoffs

Red Bear,

How many playoff spots does the CVAC get this year? I'm looking at the NCHSAA brackets and it only lists the CVAC #1. Do you have a conference tournament that will decide a second team? The brackets list three Wild Card slots in the west that I assume will go to the conferences that host a tournament.

 

As far as I know, there will only be one 3A team and two 2A teams from the CVAC that get an automatic berth. We do have a conference tournament, but I'm not sure what that will decide. I thought the wild card slots were based solely on winning percentage. Maybe someone else can clear this up.

 

Red Bear, you are correct. There is one automatic bid in the CVAC for 3A and Foard is well on its way to getting that. However, Hickory is a in a pretty good spot to getting a wild card which goes to 3 teams in the west with the best winning percentages that did not get an automatic birth. Hickory is 12-4 and has a pretty easy schedule for the rest of the year.

 

So, what's the point in the conference tournament? Is it possible for the regular season champ to lose the bid because of a bad loss in the tournament?

 

No, the regular season champ is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. The tournament does not like much use for the 3A teams except for bragging rights. But for 2A, it is a different story-I'll use the CVAC as an example...Hibriten is currently 3rd in the conference behind Foard and Hickory, but since they are the top 2A team, they are in position to get an automatic bid to the playoffs. Bandy's is currently in 4th in the conference and they are the 2nd place 2A team. If all seedings stay the same, Bandy's is in position to get a playoff bid, but if another 2A team wins the conference tournament (besides Hibriten) then the winning team will receive the bid over Bandy's. So in that conference, it looks like Foard is going to receive the automatic bid for the 3A and Hickory is in a pretty good spot to recieve a wild-card bid who will probably finish 2nd in the conference.. If I had to guess, Hibriten will finish 3rd in the conference which will make them the top 2A team-guaranteeing them a playoff spot. Then I believe Bandy's will finish 4th, which will give them a playoff bid unless a 2A team besides Hibriten wins the tournament.

Does everyone follow that? If not, I will try to explain it a little better