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TOP TEN RANKINGS March 29, 2009 (based on games played March 19 - March 28) |
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Rankings from Prior Weeks: March 19
General comments: Nebraska spring weather is a force to be reckoned with. That has certainly been true for the first ten days of this season, which included both tornado warnings and blizzard warnings at opposite ends of the state on Monday. Although opening day was a beauty, the past week has included wind, rain, severe storms and frigid temperatures. Among the many casualties on the baseball schedule were the first two tournaments of the year: the eight-team Lincoln Pius Thunderbolt Invitational and the four-team Crete Cardinal Classic. Amidst all of the cancellations and postponements, it has proven difficult for teams to sustain much forward momentum. This, of course, makes the task of ranking teams that much more difficult. Hopefully, the weather will improve soon (don't hold your frosty breath) so that the Wild Card Points system is filled with enough game data to offer some guidance. Until then, we'll continue to read the tea leaves.
Class A Notes: First the mea culpes: obviously, we underestimated Papillion LaVista by failing to include the Monarchs in our pre-season rankings. With an opening day win over #1 Westside followed by a win Tuesday over #3 Millard South, it's clear that Papio can beat anyone when Nick Yost is on the mound. We humbly make amends for our omission by welcoming the Monarchs with open arms at the #7 slot. So, who leaves the Top 10 to make room for Papio? Last week's #10, Bellevue East, doesn't seem deserving of a demotion after a shutout win over Prep and a shellacking of Class B #2 Skutt (13-5 in five innings). To the contrary, those performances earn the Chieftains a bump upwards. To make way for Papio, the lower half of the the Top Ten undergoes a bit of a shuffle.
Bryan slips a couple of notches with Papio's ascendance. The Bears, although 4-1, didn't play any ranked teams, struggled to fight off a young North Star team at home and got blasted by OPS rival Burke. Due to a late start and bad weather, Southeast has only gotten one game in as compared to the five games that six of our Top 10 Class A teams have played during the same period. Even though they are the last unbeaten team still standing in Class A, without much of a track record to go on it's hard for us to keep the Knights where they were in the face of Papio's impressive start. Southwest's two losses were to #1 Westside and #2 Millard West. There's certainly no shame in that and hardly a reason to drop two spots. It may look like we're picking on the two ranked Lincoln teams by having them share the #10 spot, but with an April Fool's Day Showdown at Sherman looming, we're counting on those two teams to sort it out on the field, and we look for the winner to climb back upwards in next weeks' ratings. Let's hope the weatherman cooperates. Bellevue East and Bryan better make sure they keep pace this week, or they may be in danger of being overtaken by either or both Lincoln teams.
We're handing out some mulligans at the first tee box to top five teams that stumbled a bit out of the gate. Westside has righted the ship after the opening day loss to Papio by reeling off four straight wins, including shutouts over #10 LSW and unranked LNE, a 14-1 five-inning win over Class B #1 Elkhorn and a thrilling 5-4 win over archrival Prep. The #2 Wildcats lost on opening day to Prep, gave up a total of nineteen runs to LSW and LNE, lost a close one to Papio South and had their paws full with Papio. Nevertheless, the Wildcats' upside is so self-evident that it will take more than that to push them down. On the other hand, there are limits to what you get here with your good looks; pretty soon you have to play up to your potential. Millard South cruised in their opener, lost a slugfest to Papio and came back to beat #7 Papio South in eight innings. Prep had an up and down week, but all four games were against Top 10 opponents. A win on Saturday against Papio South solidifies their hold on a #4 ranking. Millard North holds onto the #5 spot but is feeling some heat from the Papillion teams after opening week losses to unranked Grand Island and Class B #6 Ralston.
Knocking on the door: Omaha Burke.
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