Southeastern District Games: May 12-17

I believe Grassfield plays Woodside Thursday the 15th. At Harbor Park.

Tough week for Hickory...at Gloucester, at IR, home against Great Bridge.

 

I wonder if they got a group discount on their airfare for the trip to Gloucester?

Baseball weather finally arrives and the Conference playoff picture will be much clearer Friday night.  BTW is Deep Creek leading their conference.  Does it come with a Bye to the Regional if they win?

 

 

 

I believe Churchland is currently 1st, with Deep Creek 2nd.  Then again, DC just lost yesterday to Norcom.  I'm not sure about the BYE.  Flippin a coin seems to be just as useful in determining those things from one conference to the next.

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/0...res-and-highlights-0

 

The above link has the Top 10 along with the conference standings, according to the Pilot.

GF 10. Bethel 2. Stallings struck out 10 and got the win. GF had multiple guys swing it well.

Gloucester 12 , Hickory 2 

WB beat OS 6-4 in 8.

NR over Heritage in 5.

 

A few observations in regards to tonight's posts:

a) WB has not been themselves.  Other high schools play good baseball too, but they seem to have been in a bit of a rut the last couple of weeks.  They just don't seem to be hitting on all cylinders, as they were early on.

b) I know nothing that transpired in the Hickory/Gloucester game, but can only assume that having three weeks in between games was not helpful.  (I've never seen that before)

c) How close is Great Bridge to being healthy?  

Oscar Smith lost a close one tonight vs Western Branch, lead 4-1 in top of 7 when the sophomore lefty Tyler Morgan exited the game with one out, same pitcher they used in a win vs Grassfield last week. Another solid performance from this kid. Tough loss for Smith. Credit to a Western Branch team that never gave up.

I was at the game tonight.   The Morgan kid for OS did well.  Throws VERY slow.  WB hitters couldn't get a good bat on his pitches all night.   No clue why OS coach pulled him in 7th with one out an a 4-1 lead??????   I say again, kid throws really slow.  Not sure how that will transpire beyond HS, but it worked well tonight.    Gutty win for WB.  Tough loss for OS.   They played well.

I believe he was pulled due to pitch count, mid 70's consistently for a sophomore is not blazing but VERY effective. Thanks for making that observation....twice.

Morgan may not be as fast as let's say maybe lefty from hickory Eason or Maybe even klak from WB but he was VERY effective tonight. Speed has nothing to do with college ball it's all about who can get the wins, and tonight he proved he can get the wins. If he would have stayed in then western branch would have gotten the loss in my opinion.

His pitch count was high when that inning started.   And he is not mid 70's.   The lefty sophomore for WB, Klak, is low 80s, and his ball was much harder than Morgans. 

However, I agree, he was very effective.

AGREE!   WB losses if he stays in.

Morgan is making a name for himself I think he raised some eyebrows tonight. He never got the loss but he should have gotten the win. He's consistent as we can see and is dominant. He can be very dangerous if he keeps this up.

That isn't really accurate but I'm glad he threw well.  He sounds promising.

I agree that he can be very dangerous...he has now kept 2 hard hitting teams off of their game..OS could be a sleeper team come playoff time

Sorry gentlemen....I disagree with "dangerous".   Effective, yes.  He just doesn't have an intimidation factor or power pitch to be "dangerous".   Everyone got crazy when WB started so hot, talking national rankings and whatnot.  Reality sets in once teams figure you out.   The kid is a decent pitcher, but I personally think it's a matter of time before his lack of a power pitch catches up to him.  

I'm by no means putting him down.  At all.  Just being real.   Find me a D-I pitcher that throws slow like that.....

You can't.

I may tend to agree that "effective" suits him better than "dangerous", which is not a bad thing at all, and he has 2 years left to develop more velocity....and respectfully, he went through a lineup with several "D1" commits and faired rather well....

Agree on all accords.

William and Mary has a pitcher who throws mid-70s.  He has a .71 ERA in 12.2 innings pitched.  Has been very effective.

As for OS throwing a slow pitcher against WB, that is nothing new.  I remember it being done at least during 4 years in the past.  And it was effective then.  It would be late in the game before WB gained a lead.

I would say that "effective" would be the better adjective, as well.

 

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but it has been my experience that the more talent heavy lineups (with D1 talent) struggle with soft pitching.    Just as it is hard to speed up slow hands...its hard to slow down good, fast hands.

 

This partly explains why bad hitters can't hit good velo, and good hitters struggle with soft. The other part is 17 year olds trying to go yak, and spinning off of everything, instead of allowing the ball to get deep and taking their single or double to right field.

 

Still, a very strong effort by the young man.

I hope he continues to develop but keep in mind there is a vast difference between fairing well against a WB lineup and becoming a D1 pitcher.  There is not a straight line projection. 

 

At the HS level, hitters are not as disciplined. They also may not have the approach to handle softer throwers which makes the pitcher more effective. Can a soft tosser pitch at a D1 college? Of course.  Hickory's coach, Hank Kraft, helped pitch Citadel into the CWS as a puss thrower. He was their all time saves leader for the longest time and he topped out at MAYBE 80.  So, can it work?  Sure but I can find a lot more examples of harder throwers that work out than soft tossers.

NR vs. Phoebus has been bumped up to Thurs.

GF 9. Woodside 1. At Harbor Park. Brett Smith CG, W. Burcham 2 hits including a 3 run HR in 1st.

Good win for GF.    Smith throws very well.

WB beats Kecoughtan 8-0.

NR over Phoebus 12-1.

 

Any news on Hickory/IR?  Nice win for Grassfield.

Indian River 3, Hickory 0. 

 

Hits were hard to come by.  White, for Indian River, threw approximately 120 pitches and gave up 2 hits, one to Mikey Polansky and one to Stephen Polansky.  Eason, pitching for Hickory, gave up 3 hits but some errors behind him hurt Hickory's cause.

Does anyone know where the Conference 10 Tournament is being held?

If that is the Pen South conference it's at Great Bridge.

Conference 10 is the Pen South.  Will be posting the schedule for next week and it today.

According to the Pilot, Oscar Smith beat Bethel 7-1.  OS is now 9-9 overall.

 

Separate, yet related...Lakeland is 6-10 overall, and Kings Fork is either 10-7 or 11-7

Prior to conference play, their records were quite different.  Indian River can be included in this group as well.  I think they're 7-11.  (or something like that)

 

I think overall records look something like this:

 

Western Branch   17-2

Nansemond River 16-2

Great Bridge       15-3

Hickory              12-5

Grassfield          12-7

Kings Fork          10-7

Oscar Smith        9-9

Indian River         7-11 ??

Lakeland             6-10

Deep Creek          4-11 ??