quote:Originally posted by EyeOnHmPlt:
Churchland sure does have to prove ALOT for The Pilot to ever put them on any list. We will see how the team progresses this year after loosing so many seniors last year. However just to state a fact they beat #7 Greenbrier Christian 6-5 on March 8th, 2012.
After last year I do not have high hopes they will be moved up very fast if they keep winning. This is after watching how long it took them to get moved up the list little by little last year, win after win after win.
I guess all that really matters is that they proved themselves by being the team that played Great Bridge in the Regional finals last year.
Don't want to rain on your parade...but I will since we are stating facts. Churchland "beat" GCA in a scrimmage that had no umpires (the coaches called the game from behind the mound) and they faced only one senior pitcher who had never thrown an inning until this year/ that scrimmage. The first two pitchers (don't know the names but one being the senior) held Churchland to one run for the first 4 innings of the scrimmage when it was 5 to zip. The GCA coaches took out all of their number one players (for the most part) after the 4th inning for the remainder of the scrimmage to give their back-ups some playing time (mostly Sophs and Jrs with not much experience). None of their top tier pitchers ever threw a pitch during the scrimmage because the GCA team had a double header two days later against Benedictine and another private school that Saturday in Richmond. I imagine the GCA coaches believed it was more important to have their top 4 guys ready for Saturday's "real" games with "real" umpires calling balls and strikes vice burning them in a scrimmage on Thursday that meant absolutely nothing. I think they were even batting 13 or 14 in the line-up. Makes it kind of hard to get to your better hitters if they are batting 13. By the way, the kids that pitched the last two innings gave up only one or two hits as all the runs came from walks or by batters who were hit by pitches. So 5 runs in the last inning because the GCA kids that were throwing couldn't find the strike zone or had never pitched before (or both). I wouldn't even expect that these players that pitched the last few innings see many more innings this year.
Bottom line: GCA beats that team like a drum in a real game where Coach Lavelle is playing to win. Churchland is not anywhere close to being as talented as they were last year and will get hammered their first game in the regional if (a big IF) they even make it out of the Eastern district. By the way... Welcome to the High School Baseball Web.