Region Predictions

What is everyone's predictions for region standings in region 1, 2, and 5? If you want to avoid ranking your own teams, I'm pretty sure everyone would understand.

REGION 5

This is a really early prediction and not based on much knowledge of team rosters. Reserve the right to adjust as the preseason goes on:

The easiest call is for Oil City to be the bottom of the bracket based on their performance, underclassmen from last year. So I'll put them there.

I'm going to place Sharon at the top because even though they step up to AAA from AA....they come in having had a string of 21 straight wins before Burrell kocked them off in the semi-final round last year. I don't know what seniors they graduated but the underclassmen are used to winning and that translates to the next level IMO.

Grove City and Slippery Rock are not only close geographically but they both have alot of good athletes and can beat anyone at any time. They will be in contention for a playoff spot all season.

Meadville is a big unknown. They have the potential to compete with every team in the region. I see them going anywhere from first to fourth. They could easily be taken for granted. The key will be a defense that makes few mistakes. They can't afford to give up unearned runs.

That leaves Commodore Perry and they graduated their best pitching. Put them just over Oil City in expectations.

So:

1. Sharon
2. Grove City / Slippery Rock
4. Meadville
5. Commodore Perry
6. Oil City

I don't know much about region 5, but from what I do know, those predictions seem to be pretty accurate. Oil City and Commodore Perry probably won't have much. I believe Sharon is bringing back all but 3 starters, and most of their pitching. I could be wrong on that though.

As for the other 3, I really don't know much about them. Slippery Rock and Grove City always seem to compete, and Meadville seems to be close. I'm not really sure how I'd rank them.

Pre season adjustment is going to go in favor of Grove City and Meadville for the following reason:

Head Coach of Slippery Rock High School baseball Paul Malley Jr. resigned during the off season. He was successful going 30-26 in three seasons and taking the team to two post season appearances. From what I remember he was a spirited and vocal head coach.

Slippery Rock's loss was New Castle's gain as they hired Malley as head coach for the Spring 2009 season.

Slippery Rock also lost a few key seniors from last years team and at least one talented junior starter who won't be returning as a senior this year. So Meadville and Grove City get the edge for continuity during the off season. There's likely to be some adjustments to a new coach even if he was an assistant on last years team.

Link to the New Castle hiring:

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/sports/local_story_290092615.html

1. Sharon
2. Grove City / Meadville
4. Slippery Rock
5. Commodore Perry
6. Oil City

Williamsmith wrote:

Pre season adjustment is going to go in favor of Grove City and Meadville for the following reason:

Head Coach of Slippery Rock High School baseball Paul Malley Jr. resigned during the off season. He was successful going 30-26 in three seasons and taking the team to two post season appearances. From what I remember he was a spirited and vocal head coach.

Slippery Rock's loss was New Castle's gain as they hired Malley as head coach for the Spring 2009 season.

Slippery Rock also lost a few key seniors from last years team and at least one talented junior starter who won't be returning as a senior this year. So Meadville and Grove City get the edge for continuity during the off season. There's likely to be some adjustments to a new coach even if he was an assistant on last years team.

Link to the New Castle hiring:

http://www.ncnewsonline.com/sports/local_story_290092615.html

1. Sharon
2. Grove City / Meadville
4. Slippery Rock
5. Commodore Perry
6. Oil City

Good find. It's always hard enough to adjust to a new coach, let alone losing some of your best players. A new coach may help out the team, but it may take a year or two. Do you know if they have any other talented juniors that are coming back?

I understand about the ranking of Oil City. The starting lineup was extremely young. 2 of the starting pitchers were freshman and the other 3 were sophomores. This year there is only 1 senior returning. The juniors will be better and the sophomores coming up are a very talented group. This year will be a competitive year with next year, I believe, being a playoff caliber team.

From what I seen last year, with not knowing anything about Sharon, Grove City will be on top and Commodore Perry will be at the bottom. Oil City may be 4th or 5th in the rankings, although will be competitive against Meadville and Slippery Rock.

staub21 wrote:

I understand about the ranking of Oil City. The starting lineup was extremely young. 2 of the starting pitchers were freshman and the other 3 were sophomores. This year there is only 1 senior returning. The juniors will be better and the sophomores coming up are a very talented group. This year will be a competitive year with next year, I believe, being a playoff caliber team.

From what I seen last year, with not knowing anything about Sharon, Grove City will be on top and Commodore Perry will be at the bottom. Oil City may be 4th or 5th in the rankings, although will be competitive against Meadville and Slippery Rock.

It's tough to compete with only 1 returning senior. However, having numerous underclassman should help out in a couple of years like you said.

I really don't know much about any of these teams, except for Sharon (somewhat). I'm pretty sure that they bring back a ton from last years team, but AAA is a whole different level (and, imo, the biggest difference in a jump from one class to the next highest). However, I still see Sharon at the top. We'll see though.

I must say I was pretty impressed with Meadville in our game last night. They go to the plate agressive looking to hit the ball hard somewhere and there players are focused and game ready. There game today with Sharon should be a good one. I would surely think they'll be battling for there regions top spot. My team is very young and as I told them after the game its teams like this that you have to model after in order to compete for a playoff run. It starts in the summer playing competitive baseball then continues in the weight room and training to compete. We got our butts handed to us but we'll learn from that. We'll be facing several similar teams thru the season.

Sharon's game with Meadville yesterday was a nine inning clash between two very good teams. Meadville came up short in the ninth, 5-4 after missing on several opportunities to win the game in the bottom of the 7th, 8th and 9th. Sharon should have left with a new found appreciation for Meadville's pitching, hitting and grit. A couple costly errors and two baserunning mistakes left Sharon in the game.

The next meeting between the two teams will be in Sharon.

Having read all the hype about Warren, I was underwelmed by their overall effort. Maybe they just had a bad day or really didn't take Meadville serious but they came out on the short end of a 5-1 game. Meadville's pitching got the job done, their hitting was timely and they cut out the costly errors. They utlilized the long ball and the bunt to create opportunities for scoring.

Warren has got a playoff caliber team but no matter who you are in District 10, Meadville can ruin your day.

I have to admit, I didn't see that coming at all. It seems like Warren might have been complacent in the offseason and thought that they could just walk all over teams based on their past success. It may not have just been Warren coming out complacent for one individual game, but Warren coming out complacent for the season. Meadville, Prep, etc may have just outworked Warren throughout the offseason, and that may be more of Warren's problem. Warren no doubt has talent, but teams like Meadville who work their asses off are the teams I would put my money on before a team that doesn't work at it.

With that being said, this game may not have meant much to Warren. They basically have a bye for the playoffs locked up. The other one should be between Sharon and Grove City. So at this point, the Meadville game really didn't mean anything to them. We'll see when the playoffs come whether or not Warren's for real or if they will continue to dissapoint.

As far as Meadville goes, I could definetly see them doing some damage in the playoffs. They're solid. I guess we'll see though.

Well, things definitely got interesting in Region 5. Commodore Perry knocked off Sharon to drop them to 5-2 and Meadville shocked Grove City, ten running them 13-3 in five innings setting up the Region finale with three teams at 5-2.

I've seen all three teams play. Sharon carries the pedigree, Grove City certainly expects to win but Meadville is the classic underdog, where did they come from, overlooked, dang I didn't know they were that good, you gotta be kiddin me, who do they think they are.... team.

Meadville can hit. If they do, you are in trouble. They can pitch. If they do, they can win a low scoring dogfight. And Meadville can minimize the errors. If they do, you better maximize your opportunities. If they put all three together, they can make you shake your head like the AFLAC duck. One thing is certain, whatever the upcoming week's outcome, they sure are having fun.

Meadville moved into first place with a win over Sharon at Sharon....15-7 in nine innings. This game should have been over in the seventh. Sharon didn't get on the board until the fifth inning. A couple errors and a hanging curveball let them back in the game. Meadville put them away in the ninth with a ten run inning. It was a game played with lots of emotion and exciting to watch.

Wow. Must have been a good game to watch. I think I'm going to have to make a point of watching this Meadville team play.

Meadville lost a real pitcher's duel on Wednesday to Grove City 2-1. I really really avoid making excuses but there is no doubt that at least one homerun was taken away from Meadville by a stiff wind that turned the ball into a double off the outfield wall. Still, eliminate a couple baserunning mistakes and Meadville would be the Region Champ with a bye in the first round. That would have been potential disaster for the rest of the field.

As a result, Meadville will have to earn the D10 Championship as a two seed after beating Commodore Perry 8-4 Friday in its final regular season game.

There is one team I wouldn't want to match up with in the first game and that is Meadville. If they put it all together they can stop you in your tracks. They are a pleasure to watch.