2011 Battlefield District Predictions

First Welcome to the HS baseball web battlefielddistrictbaseball. You will find this is a great site, on a personal note i am happy to see someone else on here that will talk about one of the best conferences for baseball.

The battlefield will be tough this year, as like every year spotsy, courtland, Eastern View and Chancellor will be decent. Caroline should creep up on some poeple this year with all the left handed pitching and decent speed. Culpeper is still young but improving with their young hitters and staff. JM will struggle but with a new young coach hopefully he will have some influence over their baseball future, king George has one pitcher that throws in upper 80's to low 90, but can they build on what they did last year. It should be very competitive.

Lets look back at last 2 years.
09 reg season champs spotsy tourney champs EV over Chancellor, best teams were EV, spotsy, courtland, chancellor got hot at right time.
10 reg season champs courtland tourney champs no decision EV vs Courtland. best teams were Courtland, EV, King George and Spotsy, with chancellor doing very well in mix.
for the 2011 will not be easy for any team. I feel it will be Chancellor, EV, Caroline, Courtland, with spotsy and KG keeping things tight.

Player of the year candidates: Clay Keranan-Courtland, John Haught- Courtland, Steve Barlow-Chancellor, Frum-Chancellor, Ruane-Chancellor, RW Payne-Spotsy, Tony Beasley-Caroline, Josh Gardiner-EV, G. Ward-EV, Damien Carroll-KG, Charlie Peavly-Culpeper.

I agree the 2011 season is going to be very competitive with several teams who could win the district this year. Each team has their share of impact players who could make a difference in the district. I am familiar with most of the 2011 season seniors, but are their any younger players who could have a impact on the upcoming season? Listed below are some players who might have break out years.

CAROLINE - Jr. Tee Beasley (P/1B)
CHANCELLOR - So. Chris Barlow (P/IF/OF)
COURTLAND - ?
CULPEPER - So. Charley Peavley (1B/P)
EASTERN VIEW - So. Ben Pittman (3B/C/P)
KING GEORGE - Jr. Damion Carroll (P/OF)
SPOTSYLVANIA - Jr. Trevor Talley (OF/P)
JAMES MONROE - ?

I would have to agree with you on some of the young players i think barlow from chancellor is a senior this year. The Carroll kid is good I forgot about Talley he is a solid player. Peavley from culpeper is a decent player. I think every kid on here has the ability to play college ball and represent the district well. I am not sure of the courtland players that are young. I know they will have good pitching with weaver and keranan.

how about best players per position?
2b-Gardiner-EV (problem here is last year he was 1st team all state 2b but i heard he is going to be the SS so then who is SS and who is 2b.
SS-Barlow-Chancellor
OF-Haught-Courtland
OF-Talley-Spotsy
OF-Carroll-KG
3b-Pittman-EV
1b-Beasley-Caroline
DH-Frum-Chancellor
C-Ruane-Chancellor

Others to think about would be Rossi-OF-EV, Payne-1b-Spotsy, Peavley-1b-Culpeper, Keranan-SS-Courtland.

Ruane from Chancellor graduated last year.

Also there are two Barlow's who play for Chancellor. Chris Barlow is Steven's younger brother he played varsity as a freshman. Chris who just turned 15 is a P/1B/OF big strong boy at 6'3" who has played competitive travel ball nationally with some of the top talent in Virginia for his age and has been throwing in the low 80's. Could be someone to watch in his junior and senior years.

I also heard Steven Barlow will be probably playing P/MIF/C this year, might be 1st team Utility. Also I heard Mary Washington University is looking at him to play 2B/OF and 4 or 5 colleges looking at him to play MIF/OF.

Courtland had no sophomores playing varsity last year, curious as to what young talent will be brought up this year. Courtland has 8 returning seniors, three of them I am familiar with...Keranen, Weaver, Haught. I hear Keranen is playing SS/P, Weaver SS/P and Haught C/OF. Haught is a strong pull hitter and is going to put up some good stats this spring. Keranen and Weaver are going to be tough on the mound; both had great seasons in 2010.

Spotsy has 8 seniors and 2 juniors returning to varsity, with R.W. Payne, Ardiente and Tally carrying most of the load. Also I heard B.J. Collins (SR) will be returning, he didn't play last year and I heard he is throwing in the mid to upper 80's and has some college interest from the south. With R.W and B.J. pitching is going to be strong, but will need the bats to compete in the district. Plus B.J. has a good bat....batting .407 in his sophomore year.

Eastern View has 8 seniors, 1 junior and 1 sophomore returning to varsity, Gardiner (playing for Radford), Rossi, Ward and Pittman carrying most of the load. Gardiner probably one of the best bats in the district and we will also see strong pitching from Ward.

Not as familiar with the other teams in the district, but King George is going to be tough along with a young Caroline team.

I knew the district would be tough but didn't realize how many seniors that each team will have. Last year i think there was 4 or 5 guys that hit 5-hrs. Do you think this year willbe the year of the pitcher with keranan, ward, payne, carrol, beasly and others or will it be ther hitters again?

This is just my guess not knowing some of the school rosters as well as others.

Spotsylvania:

(This is according to their H.S. website stats)
Pitching isn't as dominating, now that Matt Houston has graduated. Unless B.J. Collins plays with them this year he will help them on both sides of the ball.

Hitting: Batting Average
(SR)Ardiente .328
(SR)Payne .271 - Power hitting capable of hitting 5+ HR's
(JR)Talley .448
(JR)Ewing .308

Pitching: W L ERA
(SR)Ardiente 1 3 4.74
(SR)Payne 3 1 3.65
(JR)Ewing 2 1 4.88


Courtland:

This year I see Courtlands pitching carrying them more than their hitting. They lost some big hitters in their line-up with McBroom, Rausch, Lynch and Lenox all graduating.
Hitting:
(SR) Haught - I think he will be there big bat this year. Potential to hit 5+ HR's and bat for average.
(SR) Fitzgerald - Power hitter, should bat for average.

Pitching:
Keranen - will dominate most teams with his pitching, probably will be the best pitcher in the district.
Weaver - had Courtland's lowest ERA 0.36 last season.

Chancellor:
Losing Ayers and Ruanne in the batting lineup could hurt, but they have Frum and S.Barlow back, both batted over .500. Frum has the potential to hit 5+ HR's next Spring. They also do have 3 other batters who had a good seasons last Spring...Oster, Gromer and C.Barlow.

Hitting:
(SR)Frum
(SR)S.Barlow

Pitching:
(SR)Frum W-3 L-1
(SR)S.Barlow W-5 L-2
(SR)Gromer - pitched a complete game shoutout last year against Orange.
(SO)C.Barlow - might be his year to make some noise.

Eastern View:
Losing M.Ward will hurt with the pitching, but his younger brother G.Ward might be able to fill in the void. Gardiner has good velocity, but sometimes struggles with control. Might be a break out year for (SO) Pittman with pitching. Hitting has always been strong with Eastern View, especially having J.Gardiner in the lineup.

Hitting:
(SR) J.Gardiner
(SR) Rossi
(SO) Pittman

Pitching:

(SR) G.Ward
(SR) J.Gardiner
(SO) Pittman

Caroline:
Very young team who played hard towards the end of last season and could sneak up on some teams.

Pitching:
(JR) Beasley - lefty pitcher with good control and velocity
(SO) Shifflet - throws hard and has good control

Hitting:
(JR) Beasley
(SO) Shifflet

King Goerge:
Another team who is going to challenge teams in the district, especially with strong pitching from Damion Carroll. They also several players who can hit for average.

No to familiar with James Monroe and Culpeper.


My guess is this will be the year of the hitters again.

Does Caroline return their other big lefty on the mound Picos? He might help them make some noise, I know culpeper is banking on sophomores P/INF Crim, P/1b Peavely and P/OF Ramey are all sophomores who saw good time as freshman, culpeper's big bats will be Peavely, Crim and Nerkwoski. JM i am not sure of except they will find themselves in the bottom of the district every year until it seems someone starts caring about the program. Yeah not sure what KG lost but Carroll is returning.

I heard Haught for Courtland is moving from OF to Catcher? I would have to agree with you outside of Kerenan, Carrol, Payne and G. Ward pitching is average at best, to many good hitters in the battlefield for average pitching to overcome. EV has a lefty that is probably going to be in their rotation, May a JR, last year he pitched a fair amount even pitched in regionals versus poqouson, i think poqouson was only team to beat him.

Is there any new coaches this year. I know last year new coaches at spotsy, KG and JM.

So after all this what are the actual predictions:

#1 Eastern View
#2 Spotsylvania
#3 Caroline
#4 Courtland
#5 King George
#6 Chancellor
#7 Culpeper
#8 JM

Do you know if any schedules are posted so we know who out of district games are? Does the battlefield get 3 teams or 2 for regionals this season?

This is only our second year in this district. My son was fortunate enough to play HS baseball last season and although his team did not have the best record, it was an enjoyable season. He did play in the Rappahanock League this Fall and we were able to see some of the competition out of the Battlefield District. Teams in the district that stood out to us were EV, Caroline, and KG. I believe that KG took the titles in both the Varsity and JV for the Fall. I also heard that KG JV won the district last year with a team of 8th graders that were playing on JV so it will be interesting to watch those kids as they develop. Spotsy was okay but they didn't seem to have a particular standout or that great of depth to their pitching this Fall. Hopefully my son will make the team again this year, as we are looking foward to the Spring season.

The fall is tough to judge as some of the teams have players from more than one school. But yes the two teams in the JV district championship was KG and EV both teams had over 60% of team made of 8th graders. So it will be interesting to see if they pan out.

P.S on an extra note last years battlefield district records were.
Just in district not overall
Courtland 14-0 went to regional semis L vs Powhatan
KG 8-6
EV 8-6 went to regional semis L vs poqouson
Chancellor 8-6 went to regional L to powhatan
Spotsy 8-6
Culpeper 5-9
Caroline 5-9
JM 0-14

So there was lots of pairity will it happen again.

I think this year is going to be one of the most competitive seasons. I predict the same 4 teams will go to the district playoffs, but Courtland is not going to go 14-0 this year. Those top 6 teams head to head match ups are going to be really important this year, losing one game could be the difference on making the district playoffs.

#1 Between Courtland, Chancellor and Eastern View
#4 King George
#5 Spotsylvania
#6 Caroline
#7 Culpeper
#8 JM

Does anyone know who has signed in the battlefield district yet for this year? I haven't seen anything on anyone signing early except Josh Gardiner and Geoff Ward of Eastern View, what about RW Payne of Spotsy, Kerenan of Courtland, Haught of courtland, barlow or frum from chancellor, anyone?....

Hey Right Arm,

I know Gardiner signed with Radford. Where is Ward going? I hadn't heard about him.

Geoff Ward signed d2 with a school in west virginia, fairmont state, chose that over kutztown, shepherd and chowan.

Caroline is young, only 1 senior. A lot of lefties and a hard throwing right handed who pitched well in Rapp fall ball, but don't recall his name