Rankings from Prior Weeks:  March 19  March 29  April 5  April 12

 

Class A Notes: 

 

Westside solidifies its claim on the #1 spot by running its win streak to seventeen games and winning the tough Metro Conference Championship. 

 

Papio South moves into the #2 spot with a strong showing in the Metro Tournament, including a win over Prep to avenge an earlier loss to the Junior Jays.  Prep also moves up a spot as Millard South drops to #4 with the loss to unranked Central in the opening round of the Metro.

 

Lincoln Southeast moves up from #7 to #5 with a five-win week and the HAC Tournament Championship.  The Knights have gone 8-1 over the past two weeks, including wins over Class B#1 Elkhorn, Millard North, Bryan and Southwest.  Jaydee Jurgensen and several impressive young players, including sophomore David Sutton, have provided offensive production for the Knights as opponents are just not pitching to Josh Scheffert.  The big pre-season question about whether the Knights would have the supporting cast to go with Scheffert has been answered.  That supporting cast is carrying the team right now. 

 

Millard West turned it around after a loss to Burke on Monday with a doubleheader sweep of Lincoln Southwest and a strong showing in the Metro Tournament.  Bringing up some young pitching seems to have sparked the team.  Despite the improvement, two losses on the week keep the Wildcats at #6.  But, look for the Wildcats to continue gathering steam down the stretch.

 

Last week's darling, Lincoln Southwest, returns to the #7 spot after going 1-4 on the week.  The Silver Hawks have all the weapons to get back into the Top Five, but it's crowded at the top.

 

Bryan  jumps over Papio with a win over the Monarchs, and Millard North slides to #10 after losing twice on the week.  The Mustangs are 4-5 over the past two weeks and have three losses to Class B teams on the season.

 

Knocking on the door (or least walking up the front steps, or maybe parking the car):  Burke (6-6) rebounded from an ugly week with a pair of wins over Millard schools, West and North.  Grand Island is 10-5 with a decent Wild Card Point Average but hasn't beaten a Top 10 team since the second day of the season.  The Islanders were not competitive against Prep and Papio South but showed some life (10 hits) against #5 Southeast in an 11-3 HAC semifinal loss.  Central (7-10) turned some heads with the win over Millard South, but the Eagles need to get above .500 for Top 10 consideration.  Columbus is 7-6, but has only two wins over teams that are .500 or better, and those were both Class B teams.  Former Top 10 team Bellevue East (7-9) has dropped four of the last six to fall below .500. 

 

CLASS A
This Week	Last Week	Team	Season Win-Loss	Wins Last Week	Losses Last Week
1	1	Westside	18-1	N'West, Burke, South, M. West, PLVS	None
2	5	Papillion LaVista South	17-3	N'West (x2), Benson, PLV, Prep	Westside
3	4	Creighton Prep	11-4	B. West, Benson, Bryan	Papio South
4	2	Millard South	12-4	LHS, B. West, North	Central
5	7	Lincoln Southeast	10-4	Norfolk (x2), LNE, GI, LSW	None
6	6	Millard West	14-5	LSW (x2), Central, North	Burke, Westside
7	3	Lincoln Southwest	11-5	North Star	M. West (x2), LSE
8	9	Omaha Bryan	13-7	PLV, Central, B. East	Prep
9	10	Papillion LaVista	9-8	North, B. West	Bryan, PLVS
10	8	Millard North	9-8	South (x2)	Gross, Burke
Class B Notes:    This week, Roncalli (5-5)  falls from fifth to seventh as Gross (9-5) and Pius (6-5) both overtake the Pride.  We look for the River City Conference Tournament to shake things up a bit this week as all six of the participating teams are in the Top 10 (Beatrice, Skutt, Gross, Roncalli, South Sioux City and Ralston).    Both Skutt and Gross both put forth a nice mid-season surge by going undefeated last week.  Skutt doubled its previous win total by going 4-0 on the week, and Gross went 3-0 with a big win over Class A #10 Millard North.  The two go head-to-head Tuesday at Gross.  Pius went 2-0 on the week to get above .500 on the season.   It's time to say "adios" to Ralston.  The Rams, four games under .500 at 4-9, did go 2-1 on the week, while their successor in the #10 spot, Blair (5-5) went 1-2.  But the Bears' two losses were to #1 Elkhorn and #2 Beatrice.   Perhaps the Rams will have a big week in the RCC and earn their way back into the Top 10.  But for now, the Bears are in at #10.
CLASS B
This Week	Last Week	Team	Season Win-Loss	Wins Last Week	Losses Last Week
1	1	Elkhorn	12-4	Beatrice, Blair, Gretna	None
2	2	Beatrice	9-2	Blair, Crete	Elkhorn
3	3	Nebraska City	11-3	Bellevue West, Central	Central, Gretna
4	4	Omaha Skutt	8-5	Wahoo, Bergan, SSC, Columbus	None
5	6	Gross	9-5	Millard North, Benson, Bell. East	None
6	7	Pius	6-5	Crete, Ralston	None
7	5	Omaha Roncalli	5-5	South Sioux City	South Sioux City
8	8	Gretna	6-7	Waverly, Nebraska City	Ralston
9	9	South Sioux City	7-7	Roncalli, Crete	Roncalli, Skutt, Crete
10	N/R	Blair	5-5	Norris	Beatrice, Elkhorn