With the season about half over, what players are having breakout seasons so far and who should we continue to watch. Looks like Jack Roberts at JR is pitching lights out as of late...
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From where I sit, I think there are teams that have underperformed and overperformed. The Dominion district is a lot more competitive top to bottom than it has been in a long time. James River may have separated themselves a little bit, but even they have been upset. I'm not going to get into names but rather teams. I think Clover Hill has been a surprise, and they are getting contributions from many players. I spoke to one of their parents the other day, and they are extremely happy to have their new asst coach at Clover Hill. He's added some energy and skills development to the program.
I'd watch out for Cosby. They're in a funk right now. They have too much talent and good coaching for that to last much longer. I think you'll see Cosby come out with a new attitude in the 2nd half. Bird, Monacan, Midlothian, and Manchester are pretty much where I thought they'd be slugging it out.
James River has shown they can explode with the bats, and also that they can have games where they disappear with the bats. The two things that will keep them at or near the top are that in addition to Roberts, their secondary pitchers are performing very well, and that their defense is as good as anyone's in the region. Mistakes beat you and they are not making many.
Cosby has surprised me in terms of the underperformance of their secondary pitchers and the underperformance of their offense as a whole, though certainly Williams has been as advertised and Ryan Hall is having a breakout year. Year after year, though, Coach Lowery gets them over the bumps in the road (in those years when they have any bumps at all). I think the only safe assumption is that they'll be there in the end.
The emergence of Clover Hill rates as the big surprise to me. I remain skeptical that it'll hold up through the finish line. But then, I haven't seen them play yet, so I'll reserve judgment until that happens.
Midlo and LCB are thick in the middle as expected, but of all the others I'm thinking Manchester is going to take 3d place and, if Cosby waits too long to revert to form, maybe even 2nd. Sophomore Nick Butts has stepped up on the hill way ahead of schedule, Jaxn Lane is a proven varsity performer, and recently senior Austin Powell seems to have found his best form as well (including a 3-hit, complete game shutout yesterday). Add in Mauricio and this team never runs out of solid, fresh arms.