3A Baseball

If I had

to bet I would say we will. I do believe on paper they are the two best teams once again. You got to stay healthy. Senioritis? Chemistry? So many things can pop up and bite you. One bad game against a hot arm? Pluse there are some teams out there like Ragsdale , Southwest Guilford , Eastern Wayne , Conley etc. I mean when they are playing well they can beat anyone on any day. I think this is going to be a great year for 3A baseball.

My pre season poll

#1 Rocky Mount
#2 East Rowan
#3 Ragsdale
#4 Southwest Guilford
#5 DH Conley
#6 Eastern Wayne
#7 Mooresville
#8 Wilson Fike
#9 Northern Nash
#10 Southpoint

And someone not in that poll could win it and I would not be surprised if it happened.

 

That's an excellent list Coach 27

And I agree with your comments!

 

Coach, I like your top 10 poll, I especially agree with East Rowan being ranked 2nd, also believe Mooresville is a top 10 team this year. Another team that should be somewhere between 6-10 is West Rowan. These 3 teams are all especially strong this year, and maybe closer to each other than we think. Should be some great head to head matchups.

also, as Marvin Ridge fan stated, this was a new school last year and they took some very good baseball talent from Mecklenburg/Union County, and went something like 19-5 WITH NO SENIORS last year, so we can look for folks to start hearing about Marvin Ridge in the 3A polls also very soon.

 

The NEW 6 Conference is loaded!

Some good battles are ahead for Rocky Mount, Wilson Fike, & Northern Nash!All 3 teams are solid from top to bottom & the coaching is excellent. Pat Smith(RM) & Will Flowers (Fike) have both won State Championships. I confess: I know nothing about Northern's coach. Maybe someone can enlighten us.
Here are the difference makers for each team:

Rocky Mount;
Ben Fish (sr) catcher
Brian Goodwin (sr) outfield
Hobbs Johnson (jr) Pitcher
Benton Moss (so) Pitcher
Dillon Cockrell (sr) Pitcher/ss

Wilson Fike:
David Gibbons (sr) outfield
William Prince (jr) Pitcher/ss
Mitchell Wheeler (jr) Pitcher/3rd
Michael McLawhorn (jr) Pitcher/2nd
Brett Allen (sr) infield

Northern Nash:
Tyler Joyner (sr) Pitcher/1st
Mike Williams (sr) 3rd
Stephen Moore (sr) outfield

 

One of the best things about baseball is that the best team does not always win. Like I said before, there is no guarantee of advancement no matter who you play, however I would disagree that seeding means very little.

Looking at the data since the state playoffs went to a 64 team field for each classification, the number one seeds are 106-21 (.835), far and away the best winning percentage of any seed. There were 25 games ended by mercy rule; meaning, statically speaking, there is a better change that a number one seed will win by more than 10 runs than lose their opener.

Like you said, all number one seeds are not created equal. I do not have the expertise to identify the power leagues in each class but my guess would be that many of the number one seed losses are from weaker leagues versus lower seeds from strong leagues, i.e. Queen City league has lost each of their openers against teams from the SW4A, and not true upsets.

Of the 16 state finalists since the 64 team fields, 13 were number one seeds, the other three were number twos. Certainly this is because that they proved throughout the season that they were the best teams thus earning the top seeds. You could very well be right that these teams would have been the finalist even if there was an open draw because they were the best teams. But I to think that there is an advantage to having a number one seed that has also skewed the numbers this way and they (the numbers) would not be so dramatic if there was an open draw.

 

coach i think your pretty darn close i feel west rowan should def be in there.

and i have one question for you and your answer might be that well that was last year but... lake norman the #6 and last seed from npc beat #1 seed se guilford 6-5 then beat your pre ranking #4 sw guilford in second round 3-2 before loosing to east rowan. lake norman had 3 seniors. this year they have 9 who like mooresville have been playing together way back. so i think lake norman should gets some votes!

 

Polls

I agree with most everyone's polls so far....it is way to early to tell what is going to happen....The NPC does look good this year as it always does.

I also think that Marvin Ridge should be mentioned at least somewhat as a contender. 19-5, returning everyone and getting a few more sticks that have either moved into the area or moved up from JV...how can you not.
I know that the SP is a little down the past couple of years but remember the majority of this Marvin Ridge team came from the Weddington JV team that went 18-0 in the SW4A as Freshmen and Soph's. I think if they can do that in the SW4A conf....they can hang with the NPC or anyone for that matter.

 

Plus, Marvin Ridge has a veteran coach in Mark Mennitt.

 

THANK YOU, finally we get some recognition ! I gurantee we wont let anybody down this year.

 

Like I said

someone not in that poll could win it and I would not be surprised if they did. There is no way you can have a top 10 poll and not leave someone out that deserves to be in it. You can bet as the season goes along teams will come and go. There are probaly 10 more teams you could put somewhere in there and no one could argue with them. The great thing is it will be settled on the field and not in a poll.