VISAA Baseball 2013

Haven't seen anybody play yet but things are not looking so hot out in the south westernish part of the state.  The Carlisle School had a likely D3 playoff team disappear about Nov 1 when the AD/Head Coach left the school and took his sr. kid with him.  A couple other kids sorta panicked and transferred and one signed and graduated in Dec, so the rebuilding has started with a very solid middle school team.  Watch out in 2017.  LCA lost what I am pretty sure were it's 2 best pitchers from last year, 1 to graduation and 1 to Jefferson Forest.  They will probably be the team to beat in the conference but I would be surprised if they can hang with the better D1 schools.  North Cross graduated their 2 best players from last year and I was not that impressed with them so unless they brought in some talent they will be mediocre.  Hargrave has 9 seniors on the roster and went 12-8 last year so they should have a pretty good season. Hopefully will have something more encouraging to report once they start playing but not too much optimism right now.   

Have not seen any TCIS teams yet but I expect GCA and Cape Henry will be strong as usual.  Norfolk Academy has been on a steady improvement curve since Chris Dotolo took over.  They should have a good year.  Bishop Sullivan lost three of four rising seniors (transferred out) and doesn't have much left after graduating the Swoopes last year.  At least they have a quality coach in place now.  Norfolk Christian had a young team last year but looked pretty decent defensively.  Norfolk Collegiate has a couple of decent arms but lost their starting shortstop who transferred to Norfolk Academy.

The three teams that I have seen are Atlantic Shores (home team), LCA and Cape Henry.  Atlantic Shores beat LCA 6-1 on Tuesday with a great pitching performance and some good hitting.  LCA looked strong defensively and Bergin threw good but did get hit.  Cape Henry is well coached (as always) but I think a little thin compared to previous years.  MaxPreps roster shows only 7 players....I think.   They have a few upper classman with experience but don't have a lot of depth.  Atlantic Shores had a good core from last year and added 3 transfer players....2 from Bishop Sullivan and 1from Granby.  They should be able to compete with most teams.

In the Richmond area Trinity and st Chris should both be very good. trinity has three very good pitchers with their #3 from last yr committed to South Carolina. St Chris will be led by yorgen and reinhart two studs

vavals - your being modest re: Atlantic Shores.  Looking at their roster and knowing nearly have the team, they are built to win! 3 very good pitchers, power and defense.  No one in the Metro should come close.  They've already beaten CH and I expect the same when they play GCA.

vacardsfan.....the pitching on the AS team is probably the deepest that I have ever seen on a team.  All of the position players can throw in relief and I would say that they have 5-6 starting pitchers. I hate looking like I am bashing other teams but I agree with you that the real challenge will come from outside of the Metro.

Sounds like AS is loaded this year.  I see they rolled Bishop Sullivan yesterday. 

The BSCHS game wasn't a very even matchup at 21-5!  I think AS used up all their hits on Friday.......Saturday's two wins came on good pitching.  Jordan Sergent pitched a complete with 6 K's in the win against Maury and Kyle Valentine pitched 5 innings with 10 K's in the win at Alliance. AS didn't have it's usual bats for either game.

Va. Pilot - Week 2 Top 10 has Atlantic Shores #5 (up from #8) and Greenbrier Christian #8 (down from #7).  I thought maybe Cape Henry might hold on to #10 another week.

Atlantic Shores pushed their record to 11 - 0 on the season with a win Friday over Upper Room Christian from NY (10 - 0) and a win today over Lawrence Academy in NC (16 - 6).  Upper Room Christian is a perennial private school power from NY who has only lost 5 games the past 4 seasons, going 24 -1 last year.

IMO...I am not convinced that AS has played anyone very tough yet. To include the team from New York. Lets see how they compete in South Carolina first before we spike the football... J. Sergeant is a legit player. 89 mph? But he is legit.   

Mathews41.......no one is spiking the ball yet.  If you look at the wins you will see several good teams......Liberty Christian, St. Anne's and Cape Henry (twice).  There are several other public school teams that have put up a good fight and AS was able to beat them while giving playing time to the bench.  Shores is looking forward to the Mingo like any good team would......competition from outside the region. 

Matthews41, I'll agree Shores hasn't been tested yet, but they've won every game they were supposed to win.  And spiking the ball?  I was just stating some facts.  Shores has a good track record, performing well in Myrtle Beach each year.  We'll keep this forum topic updated throughout the week on how the team's doing there over spring break.

Can anyone give an update on St. Christopher, Steward, Christ Church or GCA or any of the other private school powerhouses?

 

the Saints beat Greenbrier 3-2 behind a strong pitching performance from Valenzuela.  Saints also beat LCA by a score of 3-2, with another strong pitching outing from English. 

Can you give the starting time and home field location for the Steward-Benedictine game Thursday?

Maxpreps has it at 4:30 @ Stewart 

Got to see a triple header yesterday involving some private schools...

- Flint Hill at Benedictine

- Trinity at Collegiate

- Benedictine at Steward

 

Some observations....  Benedictine is going to be good, for several years!  Seems like every starter on the field is a sophomore.  They may lack a little depth on hill this year (who doesn't...except Trinity) but should put some runs on the board.  They split their home & away double header yesterday.  They should've/could've swept.  They had Steward beat except every fly ball (for both team) was an adventure.  Many seemingly routine fly balls were dropped.  Combination of wet ground and wind sent kids falling all over the place.  

 

Stewards #1 RHP Nic Enright is going to be fun to watch.  Benedictine got their hits but for the most part he through a good game.  Big kid, easy repeatable delivery.  Must have been a big win for Steward because they were acting like they'd won the World Series.  

 

Trinity is loaded with pitching.  I got to see South Carolina commit Tyler Johnson pitch against Collegiate.  The kid really looks the part.  Loose arm.  But managed to find a lot of barrels of the middle of the lineup.  Jack Sutton scorched 3 hits.  Will Aloca had good swings on him all day.  Johnson has a chance to be really good though.  The teams ended up splitting their double header.  

 

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

www.twitter.com/PlayInSchool

 

 

Enright was up to 86 yesterday, and he is just a sophomore.  The kid has a very bright future.

My son plays for Peninsula Catholic and we played Bishop Sullivan this past Wednesday and actually won!  They have 2 big guys but weren't able to hit at all.  Very young team!

Good for Peninsula Catholic....think that's the first time I remember them getting a W against Bishop Sullivan.  Your right; they are young and one of the big kids can throw hard but not much else. He's got some raw talent but no one has put much into coaching him up.  They have a new coach this year who will coach up the kids and bring the program back but they have a long way to go.  The last coaching staff they had ran the program in the ground and their JV program has done nothing over the last several years. 

Atlantic Shores picked up 2 more wins today.  After a slow start in the first game they came back to beat Wilson 11-6 and then went on to beat East Syracuse-Minoa (Syracuse NY) by a score of 6-2.

Atlantic Shores won their first two games at the Mingo Bay Classic in Myrtle Beach: 5 - 3 over Point Pleasant HS from WV on Tuesday and 8 - 1 over Laurence Manning from SC yesterday.  Laurence Manning came into the game with a 13 - 1 record.  Heavy rain in Myrtle Beach today.

Atlantic Shores 16 Heathwood 0 at Mingo Bay (SC) Classic.

St. Chris had a couple of good weeks.  Swept a double header with Woodberry Forest last week, and then split with Christ Church this week, losing first game 3-1 but bouncing back on Wednesday to win 10-0.  The Saints also beat a very good Lee Davis squad 6-5.  Senior Charlie Yorgen did a great job pitching the last three innings of that game to secure the win.  Next up for the Saints is rival Collegiate. 

Atlantic Shores really made a run in Myrtle Beach.  What was their final record down there?

Atlantic Shores went undefeated with four wins in a rain shortened week in the Mingo Bay Classic defeating Wilson Hall (SC) Saturday 4 - 1.  Wilson Hall came into the game with a 14 - 3 record.  Shores is now 17 - 0 on the season with conf games this week against Broadwater and Isle of Wight Tues and Thur, then travel to Midlothian, VA

next Saturday to play Manchester HS.

That's an inpressive run against some very good teams.  Most of the local privates played somegreat games this past week. Of note is the Bishop Sullivan team who took the week off.  Guess they are resting up after an 0-5 start?     

Isle of Wight scored four runs in the top of the first to jump out to a quick lead against Atlantic Shores tonight.  Shores came back with five runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to win 11 - 6 improving their record to 19 - 0 on the season.  Shores will be in Midlothian Saturday for a doubleheader against Manchester.

Atlantic Shores split their doubleheader with Manchester today. Manchester scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th in the first game to win 8 - 7.   Shores scored 2 runs in the top of the 7th to win the second game 4 - 2.  A great day of exciting baseball!