This is post #2 of High School Tourney coverage for 2016. Here’s the schedule:
- #1: DC/MD/VA District High School Tournament Report: post-season kickoff. Covers: MD regional kickoffs, VA district brackets, Private school tourney updates. Usually publishes the week before Memorial day tournament finals.
- #2: Maryland State Champs, Northern VA District Champs crowned (this post). Covers: MD state finals, VA district tourneys, VA regional brackets, DC regular season results. Usually publishes after the Memorial Day weekend tournaments finish up.
- #3: Virginia Regional Results, DC Tourneys. Covers: VA regional results, State brackets, DC tourney results. Usually publishes the first week of June.
- #4: Final Prep Baseball Update: Virginia State Champions crowned. Covers: VA state tourneys, recaps MD, DC, Private School results. Publishes mid-June once the Va state tourney wraps up.
Lets see where we stand now after the Memorial Day weekend and a slew of tournament results.
Text in Red are pending results, which we’ll pick up in the next post in this series.
Virginia
Here are the Virginia Conference champions, regular season and tournament. All these playoff brackets, if they exist, are at this link at VHSL. I won’t re-link all the playoff brackets per district/region below.
6-A North Region
- 6-A Conference 5/Concorde: Regular season champ Chantilly won two close games to also take the District title. Centreville scored the minor #3 over #2 upset to take the 2nd seed from this district.
- 6-A Conference 6/Liberty: Regular season champ Madison won a 1-0 squeaker over #2 seed McLean in the district final.
- 6-A Conference 7/Potomac: Lake Braddock routed #1 seed West Springfield and #3 seed Annandale en route to the district title.
- 6-A Conference 8/Cedar Run: Regular season champ Battlefield won both its playoff games 2-1 to take the District title.
6-A North Regional Qualifiers (in seed order). Here’s the 6-A North bracket. Play begins 5/25/16.
- Conference 5/Concorde: Chantilly, Centreville, Westfield, Robinson
- Conference 6/Liberty: Madison, McLean, Washington & Lee, South Lakes.
- Conference 7/Potomac: Lake Braddock, West Springfield, West Potomac
- Conference 8/Cedar Run: Battlefield, Patriot, Osborne Park, Osbourne.
Quick predictions for 6-A North regional tourney: In an unlucky break for both teams, Madison and Battlefield are set to meet in the Regional semis on 5/31/16 by virtue of being on the same side of the draw. Defending regional champ Chantilly has a tough 2nd round matchup with McLean, while the powerful Lake Braddock team has a seemingly easier path to the Regional semis. Its hard not to predict all four #1 seeds from advancing at this point; we’re marking our calendars for a potentially great Madison-Battlefield matchup (presumably with their ace Jake Agnos going) on 5/31.
6-A North Regional Tournament Results: As of this posting: Only one small upset by seeding in the first round of the 6-A North playoffs (#3 seed Centreville over #2 seed Annandale); otherwise most of the teams played close, one- or two-run games. In the 5/27/16 quarters, the recent dominance of the Liberty district was exposed as both Madison and McLean were defeated handily. The Regional semis are now Battlefield vs Centreville (who blanked Madison 3-0) and Chantilly versus Patriot (who upset #1 seed Lake Braddock). A good showing for the Cedar Run conference in 2016.
Semis on 5/31/16 and Finals (set for 6/3/16) pending.
6-A South Region: which is mostly big-time schools in Richmond, Roanoke and Virginia Beach area. But there are just enough schools in Woodbridge proper to form a 6-A conference closer to DC with teams that are typically considered for All-Met rankings. Unlike 6A-North, just the top two teams from each district make the Regional tournament. Thus, the district tournaments here are lagging the district tournaments for the North region, which finished before theirs even began.
In an interesting configuration, the winners of 6A Conference 1 and 5A conference 9 will play a championship game, so on the VHSL site they’re in the same bracket.
Direct link to Tide-water area tourney schedules at Pilot Online. Direct link to Richmond area tourney schedules at the Times-Dispatch.
- 6-A Conference 1/Coastal: First Colonial and Kellam (two perennial power houses) are the top seeds, but the tourney is at host Kellam so we’ll see who wins out. In the tourney though, Kellam was upset with First Colonial and #3 seed Ocean Lakes facing off. There, Ocean Lakes upset perhaps the state’s best team in a 9-inning affair (but First Colonial is still the #1 seed).
- 6-A Conference 2/Monitor Merrimac: As with last year, Western Branch and Grassfield are the top seeds and advanced to the title game, but Grassfield came out on top 6-1.
- 6-A Conference 3: Manchester and Cosby 1/2 seeds. In the regional final seeds held and Manchester took the District title 6-5.
- 6-A Conference 4: Colonial Forge is the regular season champ. Seeds hold in the district tourney with Colonial Forge beating Hylton in the tourney final 3-0.
6-A South Regional Qualifiers: Games set for 5/30-6/3.
- 6-A Conference 1/Coastal: First Colonial, Ocean Lakes
- 6-A Conference 2/Monitor Merrimac: Grassfield, Western Branch
- 6-A Conference 3: Manchester, Cosby.
- 6-A Conference 4: Colonial Forge, Hylton
Quick predictions for 6-A South regional tourney: to come in the next update once we know who has qualified. Early thoughts are on Colonial Forge, First Colonial and the conference 2 powerhouses Western Branch and Grassfield. Grassfield’s chances may depend on the timing of their Ace Grant Garrett Stallings and which game he throws.
5-A North Region:
- 5-A Conference 13/Capitol: Regular season champ Marshall squeaked through the district tournament, winning the final over #3 seed Edison.
- 5-A Conference 14: Regular Season champ (and defending State champ) Stone Bridge was upset in the District final by Briar Woods (though Briar Woods probably was the better team by overall record). Tuscarora easily handled Broad Run to capture the final regional slot.
- 5-A Conference 15: Regular Season champ Mountain View won two close games to capture the District title.
- 5-A Conference 16: Regular Season champ Halifax beat 2nd place Atlee in the district title game, with #4 seed Orange capturing the 3rd regional spot.
5-A North Regional Qualifiers (in seed order): 5-A North regional bracket here. Play begins on 5/24/16. In a change from last year, the top 3 from each conference qualify for Regionals.
- Conference 13/Capitol: Marshall, Edison, Lee
- Conference 14: Briar Woods, Stone Bridge, Tuscarora
- Conference 15: Mountain View, Potomac, Stafford
- Conference 16: Halifax, Atlee, Orange
Quick predictions for 5-A North regional tourney: I sense that Marshall isn’t nearly as good as its inflated record and that Briar Woods is vulnerable. We regularly have no idea how good or bad the Southwestern Conference 16 teams are, and this benefits Mountain View (who plays into Halifax if the seeds hold). I’ll predict a Mountain View-Marshall regional final with Mountain View prevailing.
5-A North Regional tournament Results: (5-A North Bracket Here) In the #2/#3 seed play-in battles, only Edison was exposed and lost easily to Tuscarora. In the quarters, only Briar Woods was upset (by Potomac), setting up two intriguing regional semis matches on 6/1/16. Semis and Finals (set for 6/3/16) pending.
5-A South Region
- 5-A Conference 9/Atlantic: Hickory and Indian River are the top 2 seeds; see above for the weird Conference 1/9 bracket. Hickory seems to have moved from Conference 10 to 9 for some reason this year; they’re a recent VA state champ and are one to look out for. The top 2 seeds advanced to the title game, where Indian River prevailed.
- 5-A Conference 10/PenSouth: Menchville/Nansemond River are the 1/2 seeds.
- 5-A Conference 11: Mills Godwin and Deep Run are the 1/2 seeds, but #3 seed Glen Allen upset both of them en route to a district title, destroying Mills Godwin in the final 16-3.
- 5-A Conference 12: Prince George and Matoaca are the 1/2 seeds, and seeds held form in the tourney with Prince George winning out.
5-A South Regional Qualifiers (in seed order): 5-A South Bracket here: I don’t like the bracket configuration, where the two teams from the same region have to meet before the final; if (say) Indian River and Hickory are the two best 5-A teams … they shouldn’t have to play until the finals. Games set for 5/30-6/3.
- Conference 9/Atlantic: Hickory, Indian River.
- Conference 10/PenSouth: Menchville, Nansemond River
- Conference 11: Glen Allen, Mills Godwin.
- Conference 12: Prince George, Matoaca
Quick predictions for 5-A south regional tourney: I like Hickory and Glen Allen’s chances, but we’re a ways from knowing how the regional sets up.
Smaller Virginia Classifications with Northern Virginia ties. The local teams in 3-A Conference 27 have all moved/graduated to 4-A, so we’ll just cover 3-A Conference 28.
4-A North:
- 4-A Conference 21 East/A: Conference 21 split into east and west this year, presumably for travel purposes. In the Conference tournament, seeds held to form and #1 seed Millbrook beat #2 seed Woodgrove in the final. Both teams advance to regionals.
- 4-A Conference 21 West/B: Loudoun Valley’s reign over the conference was ended with a shock district tourney upset at the hands of Heritage (just 8-14 on the year). In the district final Loudoun County faced off with Heritage and defeated them for the district title and regional berth.
- 4-A Conference 22: Local powerhouse Kettle Run (17-1 in the regular season) faced John Champe (Aldie) in the district final. Both teams are moving up in the world, having both been in 3-A last year.
4-A South
- 4-A Conference 17 now has perennial power Great Bridge, dropped down due to size. They’ll be a force to reckon with in the state tourney along with Richmond’s Hanover. In the district tournament, Great Bridge and Wilson met in the final where Great Bridge prevailed.
3-A East Region
- 3-A Conference 28: District Champ William Monroe and #2 seed Brentsville District. In the District Final, Seends held to form with #1 William Monroe taking both the regular season and district tourney title.
2-A East Region
- 2-A Conference 35: District Champ Strasburg, local team George Mason is #3 seed and faces a tough drive to Madison County in the district semis, where they got beat badly 14-1. in the District Final, Madison County upset #1 Seed Strasburg in an all-hitting affair 18-11.
Maryland
Here’s the state finals results in Maryland, played the week of 5/18/15. Brackets here at the MPSAA website.
- 4-A States: State Semis were 4-A East champs Leonardtown from St. Mary’s county (who beat Severna Park in a battle of the district #1 seeds), Quince Orchard (who beat favorite Gaithersburg in an all-Gaithersburg grudge match early and then outlasted surprise Bethesda-Chevy Chase in the 4-A West final), Bel Air (North of Baltimore) in 4-A North (outlasting Howard in an upset-filled tourney), and #1 Bowie (outside of Annapolis) outlasting Laurel in the 4-A south. In the State Semis on 5/24/16, Quince Orchard took out Leonardtown 2-1 and Bel Air flattened Bowie 8-0. In the State Final, Bel Air easily beat Quince Orchard 8-1 for the state title.
- 3-A States: State semis were 3-A East champ Chesapeake (Anne Arundel county), who defeated last year’s runner-up Mt. Hebron in the regional final, 3-A West champ Damascus, 3-A North Aberdeen and 3-A south Huntingtown (who beat Rockville in the regional final). In the State Semis, Huntingtown defeated Aberdeen in extra innings while Chesapeake walked-off against Damascus in 8 innings. In the state final on 5/30/16, Huntingtown rallied to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the 7th inning to win 4-3.
- 2-A States: State semi finalists: Queen Anne’s, Williamsport, Eastern Tech and La Plata, who beat two time defending state champ Southern in the 2-A South regional final. In the State Semis, La Plata destroyed Eastern Tech 18-1 and Williamsport took out Queen Anne’s. In the state final, La Plata eased by Williamsport to take the title.
- 1-A States: State semi finalists: St. Michaels, Brunswick, Patterson Mill (who defeated state finalist McDonough in their regional final) and Pikesville. Brunswick keeps the repeat dreams alive while St. Michaels returns to try to claim a 3rd title in 6 years. Brunswick and Patterson Mill advanced to the state final on 5/25/16. In the state final, Brunswick repeated with a 4-0 victory.
A quick list of past Maryland State champions by division:
- 4-A: 2015: Gaithersburg beat Severna Park 5-3. 2014: Chesapeake beat Sherwood 2-0. 2013: South River defeated Catonsville 6-0. 2012: Northwest. 2011: Westminster. 2010: Sherwood
- 3-A: 2015: Chopticon beat Mt. Hebron 1-0. 2014: Reservoir beat North Harford 2-0. 2013: Bel Air defeated La Plata 3-2. 2012: Bennett. 2011: Bennett. 2010: C. Milton Wright.
- 2-A: 2015: Southern beat Eastern Tech 6-1. 2014: Southern beat Parkside 3-2. 2013 : Catoctin defeated North Caroline, 4-2. 2012: Williamsport. 2011: North Caroline. 2010: North Hagerstown.
- 1-A: 2015: Brunswick beat McDonough 4-0. 2014: Smithsburg beat Sparrows Point 9-0. 2013: Cambridge/South Dorchester defeated Allegany, 15-0. 2012: Mountain Ridge. 2011: St. Michaels. 2010: St. Michaels.
The Maryland public high school seasons are now complete.
DC Public Schools/DCIAA:
- DCIAA: Wilson presumably kept its 20+ year winning streak in tact and took the regular season title in the District. Rain delayed the playoffs, but per the bracket the Seeds held to the final with Wilson battling the School Without Walls (SWW). In that final, Wilson took its24th consecutive DCIAA title with an 11-1 win. The gap in talent between even the best and 2nd best DCIAA team could be seen in the game report: all the Wilson seniors left after the 2nd inning so they could make the Prom … leaving all the underclassmen to win the game.
- DCSAA: The DCSAA tournament started on 5/18/16 (Bracket Here), and Wilson once again has fallen short in winning the one title they’ve never won. As the #2 seed they fell to #3 seeded St. Albans in the semis. #4 seed Maret upset #1 seeded Gonzaga in the other semis, leaving a 5/27/16 final of Maret vs St. Albans. There, St. Albans eased out a 2-1 victory to claim the DCSAA title.
Private Leagues: WCAC/MAC/IAC and VISAA/Maryland Private
- MIAA: In the “A” division final, Archbishop Spalding was forced to the winner-take-all game against Gilman, but won their 3rd consecutive MIAA-A state title. In the “B” division, Boys Latin defeated Severn. And in the “C” division, St. Johns Catholic Prep got a 3rd straight title against Concordia.
- VISAA: Click here for VISAA playoff brackets and here for the Playoff results. In Division 1, Paul VI lost in the VISAA final to Richmond’s Collegiate in a matchup of the top two seeds (Richmond Times Dispatch story on Collegiate’s win). Local teams O’Connell lost in the first round, and Flint Hill lost to Collegiate in the semis. In Division II, Greenbrier Christian cruised to the title as the #1 seed. In Division III, #1 seed Southampton Academy also took the title.
- WCAC: St. Johns beat OLGC for their 3rd straight WCAC title. Paul VI and O’Connell were semifinalists.
- IAC: Landon outlasted Bullis for the IAC title.
- MAC: The Potomac School beat Maret for the MAC title.
- PVAC: Sandy Spring Friends beat St. Anselm’s for their 2nd consecutive PVAC title.
- Maryland Private School Tournament: details are hard to come by, but here’s the matchups. Teams involved: Riverdale Baptist, Avalon, McNamara, The Heights, DeMatha, Southern Maryland Christian and Pallotti. I don’t see any of the powerhouse teams from Baltimore here. The semis and Finals were played on 5/30, with the final four set at Avalon, Riverdale Baptist, The Heights and DeMatha. The two big teams met in the final and Riverdale Baptist closed out its season with a walk-off homer to beat DeMatha in the final for the 2nd straight year.
Of note, Maryland baseball factory Riverdale Baptist has rolled of 30-straight victories and won the NACA national championship.
All Area private schools’ seasons are now complete.
Individual Player Accolades Announced
In addition to being playoff-baseball time, this is also the time of the year that we start to see player awards.
Gatorade announced their player of the year awards on 5/24/16:
- Maryland: Spalding’s Tyler Blohm won the Maryland award. Committed to Maryland.
- Washington DC: St. John’s Cam Remalia (by way of Waldorf, MD) won the DC award. Committed (per PG) to Coastal Carolina.
- Virginia: Flint Hill’s Khalil Lee won the Virginia award. Committed to Liberty but likely to get drafted early.
Pending Awards to be announced/expected later this spring:
- Louisville Slugger All-Americans
- Washington Post All-Met teams; have been named (seen some announcements on twitter), but have not been released.
- The Baltimore Sun’s All-Metro Team
- Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Richmond team (if exists)
- Virginian Pilot All-tidewater team (if exists)
- Virginia All 6-A North Regional team: Jake Agnos, LHP Battlefield is the Pitcher of the year, Jared DiCesare, Chantilly is the Player of the year.
- Other Virginia All-Regional teams: pending
- VHSL All-State Teams
- VISAA’s All-State teams, Division I, II and III
- Maryland MIAA All-State teams (if exists)
My master list of links used to cover HS Baseball:
Local and National High School Baseball Ranking Lists: Updated for 5/23/16 in most cases.
- Washington Post All Met Sports Area top-10 ranking: Madison has maintained #1 ranking all year.
- NovaBaseballMagazine.com Rankings: Madison and Chantilly have dominated the rankings all year, Battlefield & Marshall there too.
- PrepBaseballReport maintains a VA State-Wide Power25 Rankings: Greenbrier Christian, Hanover, Liberty Christian leading the way.
- Baltimore Sun Top-10 Poll Archives: Perennial power Spalding has been at the top for a good chunk of the season. Chesapeake, Severna Park.
- The Virginian Pilot Top-10 for Hampton Roads area: Private school powerhouse Greenbrier Christian, Grassfield and one-loss First Colonial have led the way most of the year.
- Richmond times-Dispatch Richmond-Area top-10: perennial 4-A power Hanover leads the way.
- UsaToday’s National High School “Expert” Rankings 5/25/16: Hanover comes in at #16, Spalding at #21.
- USAtoday’s National “Computer” Rankings 5/25/16: Just Hanover at #21.
- Baseball America Top 25: No local teams ranked. Madison was in the pre-season list but quickly dropped out with its early season tourney losses.
- MaxPreps “Excellent 25” ranking: No local teams listed. Madison started #11
- MaxPreps “Excellent 50” rankings: No local teams listed.
- MaxPreps All-Virginia Rankings: Hanover, Grassfield 1-2, then 4-A Jamestown (maybe a bit high), then the two big private schools Greenbrier Christian and Liberty Christian. Highest ranked 5-A team is Mountain View, so there’s your 6A/5A/4A favorites.
These National rankings are dominated by teams in Texas, Florida and California, as you might expect. These teams can play nearly 40 games and usually have at least 15-20 under their belts before DC/MD/VA teams even get going. So its somewhat of an accomplishment just to have a local team get some recognition. In fact, any cold-weather state team appearing in these lists is pretty special.
Major Newspaper Links/Resources for following prep baseball around the state
- Washington Post’s AllMetSports section with standings and schedule results.
- The Baltimore Sun’s high school page has information on some of the programs outside the DC area mentioned in the Maryland section
- InsideNova.com‘s coverage of high school sports, but has put limits on the number of stories you can read.
- Richmond Times-Dispatch has a HS scoreboard.
- Hampton Roads Pilot (Hampton Roads) has scores for teams in the Chesapeake/Norfolk/Va Beach area.
- NovaBaseballMagazine: great coverage of Prep baseball in NorthernVirginia (thanks to Joe Antonellis for the heads up on this great new resource).
Local Newspaper Coverage, including links to many local papers covering smaller jurisdictions.
- The Connection family of newspapers has a sports section that is rarely updated, but it does do some coverage.
- Nvdaily.com (Strasburg) has some results for some of the teams in the smaller conferences/outskirts of DC, generally in the Strasburg area.
- WinchesterStar (Winchester) has results for Winchester teams but its pay-only.
- The Daily Progress (Culpeper local paper) also has some scores for schools in its areas.
- Fauquier Times (Fauquier) has some local sports news.
- VivaLoudoun tracks the Loudoun/Ashburn/Leesburg teams.
- The Loudoun Times also covers Leesburg-area teams.
- LoCosports blog, with tons of Loudoun county Coverage
- Fredericksburg.com has some local coverage of Fredericksburg and Woodbridge teams.
- The Lynchburg News & Advance for Lynchburg-based sports.
- The Virginia Gazette for Williamsburg local stuff.
Non-newspaper Links for Local and National Prep Baseball Coverage
- VHSL’s and MPSSAA home pages for updates on VA and MD respectively.
- DCIAA‘s website, which barely has a schedule but will eventually print results and playoff brackets
- PerfectGame: perfectgame.org is the best place to find HS prospect information.
- MaxPreps DC/VA specific coverage.
- Prep Baseball Report: DC/VA specific coverage (thanks again to Joe Antonellis for this link)
- Dynamic Baseball: good prep coverage on the east coast.
Good Twitter accounts to follow:
- https://twitter.com/toddeboss/lists/prepbaseball: I maintain an open list at my twitter account via this link, which contains direct links to dozens of local resources (including all the below). Way too many retweets from the travel team accounts especially, but its a good way to keep up with local ball.
- https://twitter.com/PBRVirginiaDC: Prep Baseball Report VA/DC coverage
- https://twitter.com/NVBaseballMag: NoVa Baseball Magazine
- https://twitter.com/NoVAHSBB
- https://twitter.com/DynamicBaseball