Battlefield District 2013 Predictions

Vabsbldad, getting antsy huh, okay i will feed the fire. In what will likely be the last year the battlefield will ever be together, being it seems that they are splitting into conference 22 -4A north and conference 27- 3A east, which seems to be just a split of the evergreen and battlefield conferences merged together. Here is what i know about the teams:
1)Jayem- improved probably feeling decent about themselves and the fact they pulled a big win over chancellor. I believe they still return alot of their better players, but still not sure if they can be competitive in this district.
2)Chancellor- Should have one of the better pitching staffs in the district with Barlow and Morgan, just not sure if they can hit outside of barlow, or glove it that well.
3) Courtland- they have a fair amount returning, i heard they had some injuries this fall not sure how bad any of them are, pitching staff i believe will be led by neal and smith.
4) Culpeper- this should be a solid year for them being they are no longer young, expecting to return alot of players and have some from a solid J.V team, top pitchers Farrell and Gorby. Blaine Lafin is a VMI commit which should help bolster an offense of Lafin, Gorby and Peavley.
5) Eastern View- Should have a lot of returners from last years tournament runner up/regional team. Including top bats Pittman, Yates and Huff. Top pitchers Stead.
6) Caroline- lost alot of seniors last year, but return some solid pieces and have some kids coming up from a strong J.V team. Top pitchers Shifflett, top bats, Smith and Shifflett.
7) King George- The district champs return a couple of solid sticks in Kegley and Hundley. Arms will be the question, but they have pitchers that will throw for them.
8) Spotsy- lost a fair amount of seniors, questions will also be on the mound but could be led by weaver and fletcher, top bats will liekly be weaver, conradt-eberlin and D Luttrell.

As of right now i can i have no idea how it would finish up. But I would give a shot to say:
1) EV
2) KG
3) Culpeper
4) Chancellor
5) Spotsy
6) Caroline
7) Courtland
8) Jayem

But we have a long way to go, not sure who will return, who won't, eligibility, injuries and so on. Better question would be who are the better players returning, if you feel like biting on that.....

I can't speak for many of the other teams, but I believe KG will have some work to do to have a shot at a playoff berth.

First, the two assistant coaches (O'Campo and Hundley) are not returning. Not sure who Reviello has in mind to replace them. O'Campo is taking time off to continue his education. Hundley is leaving as his son had decided not to play baseball for the 2013 season.

Player wise, KG has some pretty big shoes to fill as 6 seniors have departed:

Dombrowskas - 1B
Truslow - C
D. Hunt - OF
Phillips - P
Carroll - P/OF
L. Estes - P

Hundley (2B) is not returning - at least that's what I had heard late in the season.

Key Returning players:
Kegsley - 3B/P
C. Bell - 2B/OF
M. Hunt - SS
J. Estes - OF
S. Jenkins - OF
Mark ??? - P
Hunter - OF

Key Upcoming players:

L. Ward - P

I just don't have a good idea of what JV players will be moving up. Not sure if Henderson will try out or not. KG was unable to field a varsity "A" team for RFBL and barely scraped together enough for the "B" (JV) team - only 3 JV players from the spring squad played. Rev's got his work cut out for him.

As for the rest of the district, I see Eastern View as the front runner with Courtland, Chancellor, Caroline and Culpeper jocking for the next 4 spots. Maybe Spotsy will be in there as well. JM has improved, but like Zeus, I'm not sure if they are competitive enough.

So here goes my very early 2013 prognostication:

1) Eastern View
2) Chancellor
3) Courtland
4) Caroline
5) Culpeper
6) King George
7) Spotsylvania
8) James Monroe

It's only 3+ months until the season starts.........

The Hundley thing is a shocker. I think Coach Rev will be okay he seems to be a decent coach. But i guess this is the year we find out if he was a product of his players success or if the players are a product of him. But i feel he is a decent coach so he should be okay. I watched some of the fall ball games and chancellor is much improved. Caroline will still be okay. Culpeper didn't even field a fallball team and i heard their big sluggers the big 1st baseman is going to WVU on a golf scholarship and the SS was also thinking of just playing golf and basketball with neither playing baseball. So who knows what will happen with them. Courtland and spotsy both could be decent or could be bad, but like Foxdad and Zeus said this seems to be Eastern View's year. That coach always seems to put out a good team and this year should be no different.

By way did anyone see last season apparently the district named three coaches, coach of the year, coach for spotsy, Caroline and KG. But yet the free lance star thought that was a joke and named the EV coach all-area coach of the year. So could this district really have 4 coaches of the year?

As far as Zeus your comment on possible best players.. I think possible player of the year could be Kegsly -KG, Weaver- Spotsy, Morgan/ Barlow- Chancellor, Pittman/Yates - EV, Shifflett-Caroline, Neal- Courtland, Gorby-Culp.
I would say favorites are Kegsly, Morgan, Pittman.
But like foxdad said we got a LONG time to wait and i am bored..

Well "Zeus" this will probably be my last season posting comments about the Battlefield District. Its is a shame seeing Culpeper and Eastern View moving out of the district in 2014."Zeus" over the last 5 years I have always enjoyed watching my two boys play against your high school team. Your team always got them fired up when we played against you.

Here are my thoughts about the Battlefield District standings.

1. Caroline, Eastern View or Chancellor
4. Courtland
5. Culpeper
6. King George
7. Spotsylvania
8. James Monroe


Caroline:
Lost 10 seniors , but still have a lot of depth on their roster. This fall they won the Rappahannock Fall HS baseball league beating Liberty in he Championship game. Probably best all around team, but no real dominating pitcher/hitter on the team.

Eastern View:
Always seems to have a wealth of players to fill in the losses. However, their Easter View 2 team in the Rappahannock Fall HS baseball league did end up losing to Chancellor, with a fair amount of their varsity players on the roster. But they will be a tough team to beat in the Spring.

Chancellor:
Looks like this is the year they will make a run at the district title. After last season's poor showing, it looks like all the coaches/players hard work is starting to pay off. In the Rappahannock Fall HS baseball league they ended up winning 10 games and were beaten by Caroline in the semi-final 5-3. Pretty impressive seeing they didn't have Ryan Greer back from his injury for the last 2 games and Jason Morgan only pitched in 2 games.

Courtland:
Not much has changed at Courtland, they pretty much have the same roster coming back. Their pitching will be led by Zach Smith and Jacob Neal. They will still be tough to beat.

Culpeper:
If what "Lonewolf" said earlier is true about their SS and 1B this could be a tough season for them.

King George:
It is going to be hard for them to repeat, especially without the pitching and some key players mentioned above.

Spotsylvania:
Another team who lost a lot by graduating seniors. They will definitely be hurting in the pitching department.

James Monroe:
Depends what team shows up, but they can still surprise someone.

Overall I see the season been just like last the last one with several teams contending for the title, but this year the district only sends two teams onto the regional playoffs.

With Early signing period beginning tomorrow, who from the battlefield is signing, or close to signing?

I saw earlier Zeus said Blaine Lafin for Culpeper is a VMI commit.

How about Morgan/Barlow- chancellor, Neal- courtland, Kegly/Hunt- KG, Shifflett-Caroline, Pittman/Yates-Ev, Weaver Spotsy. anyone??? Does anyone know where they might end up or if they have any opportunities.

Vadad, you mentioned Greer is he back this year, i thought he was a senior last year, also it seems like you are a chancellor person, how about that catcher, i think his name was selbe and he left for golf.

quote:

Vadad, you mentioned Greer is he back this year, i thought he was a senior last year, also it seems like you are a chancellor person, how about that catcher, i think his name was selbe and he left for golf.

At the moment the catcher Michael Selbe will not be playing next Spring, but then again he has been known to change his mind. Either way there have been significant improvements with the catcher we had start last year (first season catching). The catcher who replaced Selbe last year threw out 12 base runners and only had 2 runners steal on him this fall.

Ryan Greer is a senior this year and didn't play all last year due to a basketball injury.

Hopefully, Chancellor can improve from last year's poor performance, they only lost one player who was a senior.

Glad Greer is coming back he should help chancellor alot. By way does anyone know the schedule yet for this year. has it been released.

The KG schedule is up. The following is the schedule as of 11/25/2012. At this point it's 18 games - 14 district games and 4 non-district games against William Monroe (twice) and W&L (twice). I have no idea if Coach Rev will add two more games for a full 20 game season. Last year the non-district opponents were W&L, Brook Point and Louisa.

3/07/2013 4:30 pm vs Rappahannock (scrimmage)

1) 3/12/2013 5:00 pm at W&L
2) 3/14/2013 6:00 pm at William Monroe
3) 3/19/2013 6:00 pm vs W&L
4) 3/22/2013 6:00 pm vs Chancellor
5) 3/26/2013 4:30 pm at Eastern View
6) 3/28/2013 6:00 pm vs Culpeper
7) 4/02/2013 3:00 pm vs William Monroe
8) 4/09/2013 6:00 pm at Spotsylvania
9) 4/12/2013 6:00 pm vs Caroline
10) 4/16/2013 6:00 pm at Courtland
11) 4/19/2013 5:00 pm at James Monroe
12) 4/23/2013 6:00 pm at Chancellor
13) 4/26/2013 6:00 pm vs Eastern View
14) 4/30/2013 4:30 pm at Culpeper
15) 5/03/2013 6:00 pm vs Spotsylvania
16) 5/07/2013 6:00 pm at Caroline
17) 5/10/2013 6:00 pm vs Courtland
18) 5/14/2013 6:00 pm vs James Monroe

quote:

By way does anyone know the schedule yet for this year. has it been released.

Some teams are still putting their schedules together and this still can change.

Week 1: 3/4 - 3/10
3/5 Tue Eastern View(A) vs Kettle Run(H) SCR
3/5 Tue Culpeper(H) vs Rappahannock(A) SCR
3/7 Thur Eastern View(A) vs West Springfield(H) SCR
3/7 Thur King George(H) vs Rappahannock(A) SCR
3/8 Fri Chancellor(H) vs Liberty(A) SCR

Week 2: 3/11 - 3/17
3/11 Mon Chancellor(A) vs Colonial Beach(H) SCR
3/12 Tue Eastern View(H) vs Liberty(A)
3/12 Tue Culpeper(H) vs Fauquier(A)
3/12 Tue King George(A) vs Washington & Lee(H)
3/14 Thur Culpeper(H) vs Brentsville(A)
3/14 Thur King George(A) vs William Monroe(H)
3/14 Thur Chancellor(H) vs Washington & Lee(A)
3/15 Fri Eastern View(A) vs Fauquer(H)
3/15 Fri Spotsylvania(H) vs Liberty(A)
3/16 Sat Culpeper(A) vs Fluvanna(H)
3/16 Sat Culpeper(A) vs Cumberland(H)

Week 3: 3/18 - 3/25
3/18 Mon Culpeper(A) vs Fauquier(H)
3/18 Mon Chancellor(A) vs Brook Point(H)
3/19 Tue Eastern View(A) vs Liberty(H)
3/19 Tue King George(H) vs Washington & Lee(A)
3/20 Wed Culpeper(A) vs Brentsville(H)
3/20 Wed Chancellor(A) vs Washington & Lee(H)
3/22 Fri Eastern View(A) vs James Monroe(H)
3/22 Fri Culpeper(H) vs Courtland(A)
3/22 Fri King George(H) vs Chancellor(A)

Week 4: 3/25 - 3/31
3/26 Tue Eastern View(H) vs King George(A)
3/26 Tue Culpeper(A) vs Chancellor(H)
3/28 Thur Eastern View(H) vs Courtland(A)
3/28 Thur Culpeper(A) vs King George(H)
3/28 Thur Chancellor(H) vs Caroline(A)
3/28 Thur Spotsylvania(A) vs Liberty(H)

Week 5: 4/1 - 4/7
4/2 Tue King George(H) vs William Monroe(A)
4/4 Thur Eastern View(A) vs Tabb(H)
4/5 Fri Eastern View(A) vs Lafayette

Week 6: 4/8 - 4/14
4/9 Tue Eastern View(A) vs Caroline(H)
4/9 Tue Culpeper(H) vs James Monroe(A)
4/9 Tue King George(A) vs Spotsylvania(H)
4/9 Tue Chancellor(A) vs Courtland(H)
4/10 Wed Eastern View(H) vs Fauquier(A)
4/12 Thur Eastern View(A) vs Chancellor(H)
4/12 Thur Culpeper(A) vs Spotsylvania(H)
4/12 Thur King George(H) vs Caroline(A)

Week 7: 4/15 - 4/21
4/16 Tue Eastern View(H) vs Spotsylvania(A)
4/16 Tue Culpeper(A) vs Caroline(H)
4/16 Tue King George(A) vs Courtalnd(H)
4/16 Tue Chancellor(H) vs James Monroe(A)
4/19 Thur Eastern View(A) vs Culpeper(H)
4/19 Thur King George(A) vs James Monroe(H)
4/19 Thur Chancellor(A) vs Spotsylvania(H)

Week 8: 4/22 - 4/28
4/23 Tue Eastern View(H) vs James Monroe(A)
4/23 Tue Culpeper(A) vs Courtland(H)
4/23 Tue King George(A) vs Chancellor(H)
4/24 Wed Chancellor(H) vs Brook Point(A)
4/26 Thur Eastern View(A) vs King George(H)
4/26 Thur Culpeper(H) vs Chancellor(A)

Week 9: 4/29 - 5/5
4/30 Tue Eastern View(A) vs Courtland(H)
4/30 Tue Culpeper(H) vs King George(A)
4/30 Tue Chancellor(A) vs Caroline(H)
5/3 Thur Eastern View(H) vs Caroline(A)
5/3 Thur Culpeper(A) vs James Monroe(H)
5/3 Thur King George(H) vs Spotsylvania(A)
5/3 Thur Chancellor(H) vs Courtland(A)

Week 10: 5/6 - 5/12
5/7 Tue Eastern View(H) vs Chancellor(A)
5/7 Tue Culpeper(H) vs Spotsylvania(A)
5/7 Tue King George(A) vs Caroline(H)
5/10 Fri Eastern View(A) vs Spotsylvania(H)
5/10 Fri Culpeper(H) vs Caroline(A)
5/10 Fri King George(H) vs Courtalnd(A)
5/10 Fri Chancellor(A) vs James Monroe(H)

Week 11: 5/13 - 5/19
5/14 Tue Eastern View(H) vs Culpeper(A)
5/14 Tue King George(H) vs James Monroe(A)
5/14 Tue Chancellor(H) vs Spotsylvanai(A)

Thanks guys so out of district as of right now;
KG has wash and lee, and William Monroe- i wonder if they are going to be any good this year after losing seniors last year as state champs.

Ev has Liberty, Fauquier, tabb and lafayette, that should be a tuff schedule

Chancellor has wash and lee and brooke point: brooke point should be good challenge

Culpeper has brentsville, fauquier, fluvanna and Cumberland, not sure how they are.brentsville is down fluvanna isn't bad dont know much about fauq and cumb.

should be an interesting district schedule where most of it IMO will be determined in week 9 first part of week 10.

Schedules look about right. Just wanted to share that Ben Pittman catcher for EV will be joining many other Cyclones in the college ranks as he signed with Tusculum(Tenn)- they are currently ranked 2nd in the nation in division 2 and are typically one of the most successful baseball teams in the country congrats to Ben and his family. Ben last season was 1st team all area- 1st team all battlefield and 2nd team all region has played varsity since his freshman year where he was an all district third baseman.
Here is the link to Tusculum but they have nothing on early signing period http://www.tusculumbaseball.com/

Update on Chancellor Selbe is back playing catcher, Greer is back from an injury resulting in missing last year, Morgan verbally committed to North Carolina and Barlow will be playing at Mary Washington.

King George has added two more non-district games to their schedule:

 

3/18/2013 - vs Essex 6 pm

4/08/2013 - at Essex 3 pm

 

and one scrimmage added:

 

3/05/2013 - at Massaponax 2 PM

 

I was reading the Battlefield blogs mid-season last year and decided to join in for 2013.  Interesting predictions,  Caroline will be tough as several of their strong JV players moved up to solidify their losses.  EV has a strong top 9 and a very good coach but the team drops off from there, they definitely will be competitive and always find a way to win.  Chancellor will have a little improvement not much JV growth coming us this year.  Culpeper lost 6 seniors and inherited 7 strong juniors, they are deep on arms.  King George will be tough without the pitching staff.  Courtland is always good but like Chancellor we shouldn't see a large difference. I don't think Spotsy or JM will provide any upsets, pretty much the same team.

 

I think it will be a battle between Caroline, EV, and Culpeper for the title.

 

Should be an interesting last season of the traditional Battlefield District.