Central Region Playoff thread

Correct. Td beat Matoaca 6-5.  

 

Matoaca vs TD at Matoaca Thursday at 5pm.

 

Winner plays PG on Monday for the District Title.

The new pitching rules are going to make this playoff season very interesting as well.

Matoca beat Thomas Dale 2-1 last night.  2 hits for Matoaca, 1 hit for TD.  

Boyd for Matoaca (their everyday catcher) tossed a complete game 7k 1 hitter.

Boydstun for TD tossed a complete came 8K 2 hitter.

 

PG vs Matoaca at Meadowbrook on Monday 4pm.  Winner gets the automatic Regional birth

I guess today is a baseball junkies dream day:

JR vs Cosby 2pm

Midlo vs Manchester 4:30

Freeman vs Godwin 7pm

Who's playing hooky from work ?

Just curious how you pitch a 2 hitter and lose?  HR?  Errors?  Walks?  Granted your own team getting one hit does not help, but how did the runs score?

Each run (different innings) were a hit following a fielding or throwing error. 

JR vs Cosby 2pm

 

Do we have confirmation on that time?

Yes, 2pm. Expect "travel delays" with school letting out and construction.

Freeman vs Godwin game has been moved up to a 6pm start.

How do the districts match up for central regional?

Wish I'd seen that note about the starting time change at Freeman!  I got there around 6:50 and it was in the 3d inning of a 1-1 game.  Both pitchers were very effective and runs were hard to come by.

 

Godwin finally got to a 3-2 lead in the 5th I think it was, but also had a screwup that may well have ultimately cost them the game.  With runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out, Godwin started both runners, and the batter hit cleanly through the SS hole to get the lead.  LF's throw went all the way home, catcher attempted the tag but call as safe (no question there), C then throws to 3B where runner was also safe.  Somehow in all that, the batter failed to get to second base.  Later, I think with 2 outs now, batter hits a grounder deep to the SS hole.  Gerstenmeier makes a nice backhand, pivots and fires to 2nd for a force out.  Had the guy made 2nd earlier, Gerstenmeier would've had no play anywhere.  This cost Godwin a key out and at least one run.  Big time play by Gerst but with proper baserunning it would not have been available to him.  (Doh!)

 

So, you guessed it, Freeman gets bases loaded in the bottom of the 6th, Ethan Payne nailed a shot high off the LF fence and the tying and winning runs score.  Trevett made short work of Godwin in the 7th, and with that, Freeman takes the district title 4-3.

Colonial District Baseball Tournament

 

Quarterfinals, Monday 5/20 at campus sites

#6 Maggie Walker GS at #3 Patrick Henry, 6pm

#5 J.R. Tucker at #4 Hermitage, 6pm

 

Semifinals, Tuesday 5/21 at J.R. Tucker HS

#1 Douglas Freeman vs. J.R. Tucker/Hermitage, 5:30pm

#2 Mills Godwin vs. Maggie Walker GS/Patrick Henry, 7:30pm

 

Championship, Thursday 5/23 at J.R. Tucker HS

Semifinal winners, 7pm

any word on how things shook out in the district with Hanover, Atlee, L-D and the rest?  The name of that district escapes me at the moment.

From Twitter:

 

"Atlee wins 5-3 over Glen Allen! Eliminating GA for district tournament! Hanover gets the 1 seed, Atlee 2, LD 3, and Varina 4! ..."

Matoaca vs PG today has been moved to Matoaca at 5pm

Gamble for PH paid off - they didn't throw Palmer against MWGS and (barely) won.  Great season for Maggie Walker, the best season they've ever had that didn't involve Will Roberts.  PH now has a shot against Godwin, although the Eagles are still the favorites.  I'll be covering that game for at least a little while tomorrow night to get highlights.

 

Tangent: For those of you who don't read my weekly (FREE) wrap-up columns, I've been devoting quite a bit of space this season to the history of Central Region baseball.  These pieces appear as the second half of my Week-in-Review articles.  They normally run on Monday, but, due to the tie-breaker game today, this week's runs tomorrow.

 

I've covered topics ranging from the first Central Region championship (Highland Springs in 1968) to the 1994 Clover Hill state champs to the 1979 Colonial District title race, and several other stories.  Tomorrow's topic is the 2007 James River Rapids state championship squad.  You can find these on www.VirginiaPreps.com, and, as I said, these are all free articles.  For anyone who knows about / cares about the history of the region, I hope they're fun reads.

I've seen two RTD line scores indicating games where Patrick Henry got one-hit, with Ches Harrington getting the only hit both times.  Today's report shows PH getting only 4 hits, 2 by Harrington.

 

What has happened to the rest of the lineup's bats?  I realize they have managed to save Palmer for a big game, but no matter who is pitching, you can't win if you don't score.

BTW though obviously biased I would still rate the 2007 JR squad as the best I've personally ever seen.  The pitchers got a lot of attention, but what made them truly the best was how strong they were 1-9 in the lineup and especially defensively, led by catcher Tyler Gruhl in particular.  Somewhere I have data on how few runs they gave up in their 19-0 start.  They played in a district that featured 5 opposing future pro draft pitchers in Midlothian's Tyler Wilson, Clover Hill's Sean Tierney and Hunter Ackerman (who later moved to Cosby), L.C. Bird's Matt Laney and Cosby's Ronnie Shaban.  That was the heyday of Dominion District baseball!  It took a strong lineup just to score consistently that year.

Keewart,

 

Thanks for the update on the Capital District seeds.  Do you know when they play?

Nevermind...I found it.  Hanover vs. Varina at 5 p.m.

         Atlee vs. Lee-Davis at 7 p.m.

          All games at Glen Allen

 

 

Teams clinching regional berths so far:

 

Hanover

Freeman

Matoaca

Cosby

Atlee

Thomas Dale

Other two spots will be filled by someone from the Dominion (Manchester, Clover Hill, or James River), and the winner of the Hermitage / Godwin Colonial final.

Hermitage no hit Godwin earlier this year, 1-0, and Godwin pitched McGarity last night(16k's, 5th HR of season, 2B before an an intentional walk third AB) so will likely pitch Phelps, their strong #2.  Godwin needs to play errorless ball and limit Nigro's impact at the plate

So how does the Regional Pairings work?  Can't seem to find a bracket anywhere.  I do know that #1 Dominion plays #2 Central, that's all I've seen so far.

Colonial 1 vs Capital 2 (Freeman vs Atlee) - I think this 9:00 Monday at RMC

Capital 1 vs. Colonial 2 (Hanover vs Godwin/Hermitage) not sure of the time.

Okay - so if it's Colonial vs Capital and Central vs Dominion...that makes sense.  I heard that all 4 games will be played  this Monday at Randolph Macon.

 

The info I got, combined with what you just posted:

 

Colonial #1 (Freeman) vs Capital #2  (Atlee)  9am

Central #2  (Thomas Dale) vs Dominion #1 (Cosby) 11am

 

So that probably means:

 

Capital #1 (Hanover) vs Colonial #2 1pm

Central #1 (Matoaca) vs Dominion #2 (James River / Manchester?)  3pm

 

 

Day 1 Monday 5/27 - Randolph Macon, games at 9, 11, 1 and 3

Note: The next game will follow as soon as possible.  Adjust the above times to when the field is ready.

The highest seeded team will have umpires from its association (if split association) and will have home plate and second base.  The lower seeded association will have first base and third base.  If the seeds are tied the top half of the bracket gets home and second and the lower half will have first and third base.

There will be no presale of tickets.  All game tickets are $7.00.

There will be no 10 run rule in regional play.

The suspended game rule is used in regional and state play.  See the policy manual 56-4-2 for an explanation of the baseball suspended game rule.

Games at Macon

1- #1 Colonial v #2 Capital

2- #1 Dominion v #2 Central

3- #1 Capital v #2 Colonial

4- #1 Central v #2 Dominion

 

Day 2 - Thursday 5/30 RF&P 5pm & 7PM Finals - Friday 5/31, RF&P 7PM

Rain may push to June 1 at Hanover HS

I think this means:

1- #1 Freeman v #2 Atlee

2- #1 Cosby v #2 Thomas Dale

3- #1 Hanover v #2 Colonial

4- #1 Matoaca v #2 James River

The Capital, Central, and Colonial district championship games have all been postponed to Friday night. 

 

Capital: Hanover v. Atlee at Glen Allen HS, 6pm

Central: Thomas Dale at Matoaca, 6pm

Colonial: Godwin v. Hermitage at J.R. Tucker HS, 7pm

 

The Dominion District final between James River and Cosby is still set to start at 4:45pm today. The rain has stayed east of Cosby so far.

With new pitching rules, how ugly will these postponed district championships be that include the regular season champ? No benefits to winning for either team so they won't even consider using an arm that may be used on Tuesday. At least that's my assumptiom

I think you'll see Cosby use Williams 3 innings today, to keep him sharp without using him up too much or threatening his eligibility for Monday.  After that, it's a staff game.  You always play to win, but since you can't even get home field advantage for the regional quarterfinals, you don't want to compromise next week too much trying to win today. 

 

Godwin and Hermitage are the ones at a real disadvantage.  That's an elimination game with only 2 days off before Monday's regional game for the winner.  You have to do what you have to do to try to win that one, but what's necessary to win Friday could well get you eliminated Monday.  Can't be helped, you just have to deal with it the best you can, but it sure puts them at a disadvantage.  Especially given that, assuming Hanover uses Casey on Monday, you can't bank on scoring a bunch on Monday either.

I agree 100%.  I would throw a JV pitcher before I would use a guy who has any chance of pitching in the QF if I were in a district tournament final that didn't matter.

 

I should add that it's not unheard-of to cancel the district final in the face of bad weather if the #1 team made it (i.e. if there are no regional berths on the line).  A Colonial final got scratched altogether after about three days of rain a few years back.  Not saying a district would do that after one day, but, if it happens to rain tomorrow, I would certainly begin to consider that if I were looking to give teams from my district the best chance of being successful at regionals.

For those District Tourney Championship games that mean nothing, they should pull up the JV teams and let 'em go at it.  Bet they would get a kick out of it.

No athlete or coach from any program, much less a successful program, wants to lose a game, especially a championship game to a rival (that doesn't mean burn your ace and not have him for the regional playoffs).  Yes in the bug picture to the novice it may seem as if it really doesn't matter, but at this time of year, when everyone still playing is good, it is about momentum, and losing is never good for momentum  You usually hear the game really didn't matter from the losing side, the winning side are the ones saying it feels great to be a champion. 

If you ask the two senior Cosby kids that pitched, Flannagan and Day, I'm sure they wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to pitch and win a district tournament championship.  As far as JR, kids that will be their top line arms in the next few years received great experience.  JR pitcher who gave up the GS to Williams on Friday was able to redeem himself and got Williams to nub one back to him in the 7th. JV should have their own tournament, IMO.

Redbird,

 

While his comments above are not offensive at all, "Not R Graham" 's choice of screen name is obviously someone's bad idea of a joke, and I would appreciate your deleting his privileges.

You read it wrong Big B,  I am a huge fan of RG.  I find him insightful, informative, and funny.  It is a complement..

If that was your intention, I did read it wrong.

 

But to avoid confusion, not to mention unintentional offense, I would respectfully suggest you adopt a less similar screen name.

According to Marc Davis from NBC12, the Central District has cancelled all of its championship contests, including the Thomas Dale-Matoaca baseball final.  Both teams were declared tournament co-champions.  

 

As of 3pm the Capital and Colonial District baseball finals are still on for tonight.