MJ23

Should have stuck with the big 10 school.

Or not.

Said it on the other thread, Highlands needed Dreves to be good tonight to have a shot, and he didn't make it out of the first inning.

Dreves has the stuff to win this game for Highlands, but he has to throw strikes like he did against Paintsville. If his control is not good tonight, Highlands will be in big trouble.

Nicholson follows with RBi single.

Two out double by Cameron Scheler followed by an RBI single by Littlefield gives X a 1-0 lead.

Top 6 no score. X has 3 hits, Hazard has yet to get one.

X gets a one out walk in the 5th but runner gets stranded at 2nd base. No score bottom 5.

Top 5 no score. Game flying along.

One hit in the game so far.

Devin Morris. Had 16 K's in their first round win. Fastball up to 90-91. St. X will have their hands full.

I don't see a tall task , but should be a good one!

Yeah, it's no tall task facing a 4th rounder on the mound.

One of the top teams in NKY vs a top 5 team in the state. Not really all that surprising.

Congrats to Highlands LHP Drew Rom on being selected in the 4th round by the Baltimore Orioles!

I love the way Ohio does their draw. I know this is the way basketball is done. Do they do the same for baseball?

My brother in law coaches in Ohio, and yes it is done the same way as basketball.

There is the problem. A region 1&16 will likely not have head to head and most likely no common opponents. Then we’re back to another “buzz word” with no definition in your “formula rankings.” In theory, seeding sounds great for the big city schools. Not so much the rural regions.

This is not true at all. McCracken in region 1 plays teams from all over the state every year. Paducah Tilghman does also. McCracken has won that region every year since the school opened. Greenup County in region 16 plays several teams from Lex, Lou, and NKY every year. The good teams from the rural regions understand that playing teams outside of your own little bubble help prepare you for post season. Those that don't play any teams from outside their area are likely teams that won't be making it to the state tournament. You can look at other rural regions as well. The teams that typically represent those regions at the state tournament have played at least a handful of teams from the more populated areas.

There are a few real simple ways to do it. Ohio uses a similar format to seed their sectional tournaments...take the 16 coaches of the teams who have qualified and have them seed the teams 1-15 (don't seed their own team). Teams get 15 points for a 1 seed down to 1 point for a 15 seed. Compile the points from the 16 coaches seeds and the team with the most points gets seeded 1, second most points is the 2, and so on until you have teams seeded 1-16. The 1 seed gets to pick their spot in the bracket, followed by the 2 seed, and so on until the 16th seed fills the final spot on the bracket and your first round matchups are set. This makes regular season wins, strength of schedule, etc mean something.

The other option would be to have a rotating head coach from each region seed the teams regardless of whether or not their team was in it that year.

Personally, I like the first option.

Let’s be real....not all region champs are equal. Why should the Region “x” champ who played a weaker schedule and finished with a worse record be valued equally with the Region “y” champ who had a better record against better competition. We hear people complain so much about “participation trophies”, yet we want to make sure even the weaker teams get valued equally and a chance to advance in what’s supposed to be the “best” high school tourneys in the country. A team’s whole body of work throughout the regular season should mean something come tournament time. And if you start factoring in things like strength of schedule into the formula, you see teams scheduling tougher, and more great, meaningful regular season games.

Exactly!

Look at the regular season. Teams play 30-35 games and the only games that mean anything are the few District games they play for District Tournament seeding. Heck, the 26th District has St.X and Male and that's it, so those two teams play a full schedule of games that really don't mean a hill of beans. A St.X team that goes 33-2 against a very tough schedule, should not face a 28-6 PRP team in the first round who has its entire roster back from last year's State Championship squad. And no I don't have a dog in the fight. It's really just common sense.

Look, I am definitely from the camp of the worst reason to keep doing something is because it's always been done that way. With that in mind, understand that I think the tradition is a good one, since there's no real equitable and 100 percent accurate way to rank the teams. Go to any of the football and HS hoops forums and watch how people complain about the computer rankings, and ask yourself how that might work with something as big as the Sweet 16.

Seeding/rankings will always be subject to debate, but that's not a reason to not do it. NCAA does it every year, and yes some will complain but that's just the way it is and you live with it. To use a blind draw that makes your body of work in the regular season virtually meaningless is lazy. Teams should be rewarded for what they do in the regular season in my opinion.

Taking nothing away from Campbell Co because they are a solid squad, but this shows how bad this region is.

As my good friend noted on Twitter, back in March the No.1 and No.2 teams in the state met in the first round of the SW16 basketball tourney. Neither of those teams won the state title. Win the game directly in front of you, and the rest will take care of itself if you're good enough. If that's not good enough for you, get over it. It's how we do things here.

"It's how we do things here"

Translation: We're too lazy to come up with something better.

Hacker is pitching against someone tonight. 121 K's against weak schedule.

Very weird turn of allegiance in my opinion

If you can't beat em, join em.

I was not at the game, but Krumps intentionally walking two hitters to load the bases in the 7th is the right call in my opinion. Allows you to play your middle infield at double play depth instead of in for a play at the plate that opens more holes for a ground ball to get through the infield. Makes for an easier force play at the plate on a ball hit to the corners vs a more difficult tag play. Result wasn't what they wanted, but it was the right call.

I would presume it would have more to do with being able to play multiple games at different times of day (ie could play two games at 10:00A and two games at 7P, if necessary).

Ah, yeah, that makes sense.