While the praise is appreciated, I'm still not sure how good JR really is. We have games where we hit like demons, other games where the offense is a no-show. One constant has been that our young infield puts us behind the 8-ball at least 2 innings per game.
The losses until yesterday were "quality losses" if there is such a thing. Yesterday was not. Even though Manchester is a pretty good team with some outstanding young pitching, there's no excuse for blowing a 10-1 lead. But combine bad defense with an off day by 2 pitchers (our two lefties) and it became one of those high school games you hear about, the kind we avoided completely last year.
I've said it before, but to be a top HS team, you need to be solid up and down the lineup, and typically you need to be deep in seniors. We seem to be getting more consistently strong on offense but we still have defensive holes, and I do chalk that up a lot to our infield being full of underclassmen.
The best hope for us is that they mature from a day like yesterday and that we get in position to make a playoff run. That could still happen.
But if I were betting on who would be the next state champ, we would be definite dark horses. I'd look to Cosby, Oakton or Western Branch first.