Watching college baseball over the last few weeks, I've been reminded as to how important double elimination is in baseball. I've been thinking about a plan to make every round of high school baseball double elimination. Follow me:

 

District Tournaments

Almost every district in Kentucky is four-teamed, meaning a standard four day tournament would suffice. On Monday, #1 vs. #4 and #2 vs. #3. On Tuesday, losers play and then winners play. Wednesday, two losers bracket teams play. Thursday, two finalists play and then repeat if losers bracket team wins the opener. The 3-team, 5-team and 6-team district tournaments would alter somewhat. Only district winners advance.

 

Regional Tournaments

Each region would have four district winners playing a standard double-elimination tournament. It could begin on Memorial Day Monday and be finished by Thursday, using the same setup as above.

 

Sectional Tournaments

Each section would have four regional winners (1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16), just like in earlier years. Double-elimination at one site. Start on Tuesday and finish on Friday.

 

State Tournament

Four sectional winners advance to Lexington, play same tournament as shown in every earlier round. Start on Wednesday (same Wednesday as this year and every year), playing two games. Play two on Thursday, losers bracket and winners bracket game. Play one on Friday night. Final two play on Saturday for the championship at say, 6pm. Might have to play a second game afterward, depending on who won the first game.

 

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Now, I realize this would be skewed toward bigger schools with more pitchers, but at the same time, each school in the state would be guaranteed two postseason games, something not permitted right now. Big schools would have to decide who to throw, which might allow smaller schools throwing their ace to pick up a win.

 

I'm sure you guys will find faults and I encourage it. But remember, under this plan, the same amount of time is required as now. More teams get to play more games than now. And in the end, the best team(s) should advance in each round, promising what should be a better overall tournament. Any opinions?

Im up for it...it would definitely make the tournament more fun for the players. Only objection is what about the 36th district, it has 5 teams. There are more dstricts like this as well.

Looks like a very solid plan. Nice work...

Has there ever been a District runner up win a state title?

There are currently

 

4...three-team districts

10...five-team districts

1...six-team district

 

Three-team setup

Monday

Game 1: #2 vs. #3

 

Tuesday

Game 2: #1 vs. Game 1 winner

 

Wednesday

Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser

 

Thursday

Game 4: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner

Game 5: Game 4 repeat, if necessary

 

Five-team setup

Monday

G1: #4 vs. #5

G2: #2 vs. #3

 

Tuesday

G3: Loser-1 vs. Loser-2

G4: Winner-1 vs. #1

 

Wednesday

G5: Winner-3 vs. Loser-4

G6: Winner-2 vs. Winner-4

 

Thursday

G7: Loser-6 vs. Winner-5

 

Friday

G8: Winner-6 vs. Winner-7

G9: Repeat Game 8, if necessary

 

Six-team setup

Monday

G1: #4 vs. #5

G2: #3 vs. #6

 

Tuesday

G3: #1 vs. Winner-1

G4: #2 vs. Winner-2

 

Wednesday

G5: Loser-1 vs. Loser-2

G6: Loser-3 vs. Loser-4

 

Thursday

G7: Winner-5 vs. Winner-6

G8: Winner-3 vs. Winner-4

 

Friday

G9: Loser-8 vs. Winner-7

G10: Winner-8 vs. Winner-9

 

Saturday

G11: Repeat final, if necessary

There is only one six-team district (Harlan County/Bell County) and its in the process of shrinking. Under my plan, they might have to have co-hosts to make it end quicker.

This would be my plan:

 

Allow regional runners-up to advance to the semistate, although send them to another semistate. For example ... this year, Heath and Bowling Green met in the series at Paducah. Under my plan, the 2nd and 3rd region runners-up would have joined them in a four-team, single-elimination tournament. Have a runner-up and a regional champion meet in the first round.

 

That would have put Heath, Bowling Green, Christian County and Ohio County in a tournament at Paducah. Muhlenberg South would have had a four-team meet with Henderson County, Apollo, Lone Oak and Franklin-Simpson.

 

This is a format which would allow two schools from the same region to meet in the state tournament. I don't have a problem with that ... there may be years that the two best teams in a semistate may come from the same region.

 

I have a problem with three-game series for this reason. It simply favors the bigger schools, which are more likely to have the pitching depth to win such a series.

gchs, nice plan. It could work and it's well thought out.

This is an excellent idea, if we can have double elimination tournaments for Little League and Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth, why not for HS baseball? It would be a better test of the teams' depth and resilience than the present system. It would, in my opinion, be worth shortening the regular season to do, although I would prefer that we get to start the baseball season in the middle of March rather than the end. However, I KNOW that they will never switch things to allow baseball season to begin before the basketball champion is crowned.

Send it to KHSAA! Nice work.

That is a great format. I like the idea of double elimination. Anything that allows the kids to play more games is a positive.

If you're going to go to double-elimination, you need to go to two classes. It's ridiculous to expect a Class A school to compete with the biggest schools in a format that puts a premium on pitching depth.

If you're going to go to double-elimination, you need to go to two classes. It's ridiculous to expect a Class A school to compete with the biggest schools in a format that puts a premium on pitching depth.

 

I figured that would come up and I'm in complete agreement with two classes. That might alter the setup some though, just because of the number of teams.

I figured that would come up and I'm in complete agreement with two classes. That might alter the setup some though, just because of the number of teams.

Your format proposal, is very well thought out and I like it.

 

Would the Regional and Sectional finals, be a double-elimination also, or would the team with no losses, play the loser bracket winner and that is the champion, in a 1 game format.

 

Someone mentioned classes and does anyone know, the Baseball class breakdown, to compare and discuss the numbers.

 

Excellent job gchs_uk9....:thumb:

This is excellent... I believe it would work with different classes set up.