Give us your rankings and thoughts on the 2016 9th Region. Please be constructive.

I'll take a stab at the top 5.

1. Beechwood - returns nearly everything except a 3 yr starting catcher.

2. Ryle - Returns arguably the best pitcher in the 9th and moved up several strong JV players.

3. Highlands - lost a lot of seniors from last years state runner up, but return Raisor and Doty. Should be able to make another run.

4. Covington Catholic - Team is a little young, but by mid season they should be the same old Cov Cath.

5. Newport Central Catholic - very strong jv team last year and should have several move to varsity.

I would agree that Beechwood should be the pre-season favorite. On paper, they are stacked. Is this the year they get it done on the field ?

After Beechwood, I think you have to go to the 33rd district. Every year it is a dog fight, and this year will be no different. The district has two of the top pitchers in the state and has 3 committed to D-1 colleges . Every district game is a low scoring event. Last year at one of the district games, there was only 2 hits allowed with the winning team having no hits. Four very good teams in Boone, Ryle, Cooper and Conner. Two teams will be the odd man out when it comes to region play.

I would say Highlands will fall in after the teams above. They lost most of their offensive game, but return quality pitching.

The 33rd district is a dog fight every year so I would expect that again this year. I think I would rate the 33rd as 1) Ryle, 2) Conner, 3) Cooper & 4) Boone. I think they are all pretty close in talent this year so I won't be shocked no matter who wins the 33rd. I agree with the top 5 in the 9th region listed above but again someone else could jump in their and win the 9th also. Looking forward to a really competitive year all around.

Highlands will again have the best pitching in the 9th with Raisor, Doty and Rohm..All of which throw in the mid 80's with Raisor hitting upper here and there..

No way do I believe Highlands falls in behind all the 33rd district teams. Personally I see it as

1. Beechwood - Definitely the most talent but haven't lived up to expectations. May finally be there year.

2. Highlands - Still have Raisor, Doty, and soph Rom gives them a deep staff. One thing is for sure, they will be well coached.

3. Ryle - Ziegelmeyer and they have a junior lefty over there (can't remember his name) who is pretty good.

4. Cov Cath - Always one of the top few teams in the region.

5. Boone Co - Purnell one of the top pitchers in the state. Not sure how much they will have around him though. Heard the Teegarden kid transferred to Campbell County which if true would be a big loss for them.

My thoughts on the top 5.

 

1. Beechwood – High expectations for this team. Anything other than a 9th Region Championship and a deep run in the State tournament would be a disappointing year.

2. Covington Catholic – Return a lot of seniors who have had plenty of varsity experience while going 25-8-1 last year. Some solid juniors and also have a very strong sophomore class with at least 3 likely to get significant varsity time (Kennedy, Mayer, Maille).

3. Ryle/Boone – Both teams return a decent amount of experienced players and have some A+ pitching. Hope to see a Purnell vs. Ziegelmeyer game this year.

5. Conner – Heard they had around 15 returning players who were on the varsity team last year with a couple being cut after being in the program for years. So plenty of experience, but will they have the pitching to compete with the teams above?

 

Notes:

*Highlands – Don’t know enough about the returning players to place them in my top 5. Didn’t they practically lose their entire starting lineup from last year? I know they should have some solid pitching this year, but how does their defense and hitting stack up to other teams in the 9th?

 

*Heard Cooper had only 4 or 5 seniors return for tryouts this year (KHSAA lists 11 juniors on last year’s team). What’s going on there?

If I am not mistaken, the Highlands seniors were part of a frosh regional champ and followed that up with a JV regional championship by winning 4 games and giving up 0 runs, 3 of which were played on the same day.

If I am not mistaken, the Highlands seniors were part of a frosh regional champ and followed that up with a JV regional championship by winning 4 games and giving up 0 runs, 3 of which were played on the same day.

 

True. But, that’s Freshman and JV baseball. That’s a far cry from varsity, and really not the best indicator of how a program’s varsity program will be. Take Conner and Cooper JV teams this year. Conner has a lot of returning juniors and seniors that make up their varsity squad, so no room for sophomores. This means their JV team will be made up of almost entirely sophomores, and some good ones at that. Then you have Cooper who I heard had very few returning seniors and juniors. I’ve been told around 5 of their better sophomores will be on varsity. This means they will likely have weaker JV and Freshman teams as younger players will be pulled up. So, it’s likely Conner’s JV team will easily beat a younger, less experienced Cooper JV team when they face each other this year. Does this mean Conner’s varsity team will be better than Coopers next year when those players move up to varsity? Probably not. It's possible the opposite will occur, since the Cooper players have had experience at the varsity level that the Conner players didn't.

 

I’m not saying a great JV team won’t translate into a great varsity team, but I can definitely see situations where it doesn’t.

Highlands will again have the best pitching in the 9th with Raisor, Doty and Rohm..All of which throw in the mid 80's with Raisor hitting upper here and there..

I would say the three mentioned are a good start to a rotation. I think I read where Rom had a good showing at a PBR event, but until Rom gets a little varsity time under his belt, I would say there is 4 or 5 teams in the region with a little stronger top 3.

I don't know if Highlands offense can step up like last season. I would like to see how the rotation responds if they don't have the big offensive leads .

Is the correct spelling Rom or Rohm ? I have seen it both ways.

Is the correct spelling Rom or Rohm ? I have seen it both ways.

 

Rom

What should we expect to see from Newcath and Dixie both with strong schedules this year?

Looks like NewCath top 2 pitchers will be sophomore Jared Iles and senior owen workman. New Cath has some talented sophomores and juniors ... Should be a competitive year for NewCath!! Go Breds!

What about Dixie who do they return from last year. From what i heard they had a lot of seniors last year?

Looks like NewCath top 2 pitchers will be sophomore Jared Iles and senior owen workman. New Cath has some talented sophomores and juniors ... Should be a competitive year for NewCath!! Go Breds!

 

Iles definitely can make a difference in the rotation this year if he is developing as well as projected. Workman a pretty smart pitcher who locates well.