Central Region--Week of April 2

Two key matchups in the Central District this week:
Thomas Dale vs. Dinwiddie (today)
Thomas Dale vs. Prince George (Thursday).
The outcome of these games will certainly impact who remains in contention for those 4 coveted playoff spots, but more importantly, who will be on the outside looking in.

Bird loses 5-3 to Monacan. Bird leaves bases loaded in the top of the 7th.

Clover Hill beats Midlothian 7-1. Steven Walshak tosses a CG with 8 k's and Nick Ladocsi drives in 3 on a 2-4 day at the plate.

Big win for Clover Hill.

The way those two teams had been going, no way you would've predicted that outcome.

Never heard of Walshak before, we'll have to see if he can put up performances like that consistently. Midlo had been scoring a fair amount in its previous games, not a weaker sister offensively by any means.

Meanwhile, the difficult season for Manchester continues. They got a nice win at St. Chris Saturday, but then yesterday they stunk it up in pretty much every phase of the game at Benedictine. Tomorrow they go to James River. No rest for the weary.

Same for Thomas Dale (difficult season). Lost to Dinwiddie in the 7th, a continuation of a pattern of not being able to close down leads in the late innings. Thanks to the Progress-Index for an accurate and fair assessment of the game. They said it best: "Another hard-luck loss".

Interesting.

Ran my own sort of 'strength of schedule' numbers based on the average of Opponent's Win% [OWP] and Opponent's Opponent's Win% [OOWP]. Here is what I came up with so far:

```OWP `OOWP `AVG
1) 65.1% 49.9% 57.5% Manchester
2) 61.0% 50.2% 55.6% Clover Hill
3) 57.1% 50.2% 53.7% Hanover
4) 57.6% 49.7% 53.6% Glen Allen
5) 57.6% 49.5% 53.6% Prince George
6) 54.3% 52.7% 53.5% James River
7) 53.8% 52.8% 53.3% Cosby
8) 55.0% 51.2% 53.1% Dinwiddie
9) 53.7% 52.0% 52.8% Midlothian
10) 55.7% 49.7% 52.7% Maggie Walker
11) 50.0% 53.7% 51.9% Powhatan
12) 52.4% 50.8% 51.6% Thomas Dale
13) 53.4% 49.7% 51.5% Lee-Davis
14) 51.8% 51.2% 51.5% Patrick Henry
15) 48.1% 54.6% 51.3% Monacan
16) 50.7% 51.4% 51.1% Trinity
17) 49.2% 52.4% 50.8% Colonial Heights
18) 50.0% 50.9% 50.4% Freeman
19) 49.4% 51.0% 50.2% Deep Run
20) 45.9% 54.1% 50.0% Benedictine
21) 48.2% 51.5% 49.8% Mills Godwin
22) 48.3% 50.9% 49.6% Hermitage
23) 44.4% 54.5% 49.5% Matoaca
24) 44.6% 54.0% 49.3% L.C. Bird
25) 43.2% 55.3% 49.3% St. Christopher's
26) 48.8% 49.7% 49.3% Meadowbrook
27) 53.9% 44.5% 49.2% Steward School
28) 47.8% 50.5% 49.1% Varina
29) 47.4% 50.8% 49.1% Hopewell
30) 46.7% 50.8% 48.8% Henrico
31) 46.7% 50.6% 48.7% J.R. Tucker
32) 44.6% 52.4% 48.5% Atlee
33) 43.1% 50.0% 46.5% Highland Springs

Will be curious to see how this changes as the season continues.

Not sure where you got these statistics from. Midlothian oppnenents at the time of your post records were: Cosby 8-1,Powhatan 2-2, Dale 3-4,
Benedictine 10-2, James River 5-0, Bird 4-3. Combined record 32-12 WP 76.2%

The problem is that the math is circular. Your opponents might have great records in part because you lost to them.

What you need to do is see how your district's teams fare when they play those from other districts, also in public v. private situations. That gives you an idea of where your district stacks up against the rest of the world. From there, I should think the district standings prove the rest of it.

Manchester put quite a scare into James River this evening, but an outstanding effort by junior LHP Jaxn Lane got wasted by 4 unearned runs in the bottom of the 6th that let JR pull out a 5-2 heartbreaker.

Lane was in complete command for 5 innings, was 82-84 spotting his fastball, mixing a change up, but the go-to pitch was a diagonal curve that buckled lefties and got the back door repeatedly on righties. Except for a hustle double by Mac Caples and an RBI hit by Jack Roberts, JR couldn't scratch through 5. Lane also helped himself by picking off a runner in each of the first three innings, though one of them escaped on a high relay throw from the 1B towards second base.

Tyler Carrico pitched shutout ball for I think the first 4 innings before giving up single runs in the top of each of the 5th and 6th. Both times he left a 2-strike slider over the plate and Manchester hitters came through.

Bottom 6, a muffed grounder to SS opened up the proverbial inning from Hades for the Manchester defense. After a K looking, Lane induced a "swinging bunt" but muffed the ball and then threw it away for a double error that put runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Roberts then bounced once just past Lane towards SS and beat the play for an infield hit that tied the game. Collin Lawless then drove a deep sac fly for the go-ahead run. After an intentional walk, back-to-back bloop hits by the bottom of the JR order brought home 2 more runs. Trey Rose closed with a perfect 7th.

Tough loss for Manchester, to be sure, but a vast improvement over how the team played just two days earlier. This might be one of those games that was won by the more seasoned team, and in a year the roles might well be reversed.

I do think that after his starts against St. Chris last Saturday and JR today, Jaxn Lane has made it clear he deserves to be watched.

quote:

Originally posted by MHS28:
Not sure where you got these statistics from. Midlothian oppnenents at the time of your post records were: Cosby 8-1,Powhatan 2-2, Dale 3-4,
Benedictine 10-2, James River 5-0, Bird 4-3. Combined record 32-12 WP 76.2%

It is a measure of ALL opponents on the schedule, not just opponents played.

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
The problem is that the math is circular. Your opponents might have great records in part because you lost to them.

True, but it's the same for everyone, so it's all relative IMO. I'm sure one could get much more detailed with it, but it is what it is, just a quick look at schedules and their comparative 'strengths', so to speak.

Maggie Walker gave DR a scare last night. Polk pitched very well for MW and this is a competative team. Underestimating them could be a problem for some who have always presumed MWGS was an easy win.

Joe Lane came in and pitched for DR in the 4th. Lane had 11 ks. He did a great job. Also, the soph. catcher, Orcutt, has done an admirable job of filling in for the injured varsity staring catcher for DR. It was a fun game to watch.