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Prep Baseball Update #5 2018: DC/MD/VA “Tournament of Champions” brackets

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Welcome to my DC Area Prep Baseball Tourney coverage for 2018.

Here’s the rough schedule of posting and what we’ll cover:

  • #1: DC/MD/VA District High School Tournament Report: post-season kickoff .  Covers: MD regionals, VA district brackets, Private school tourney updates.  Usually publishes the week before Memorial day tournament finals.
  • #2: Maryland State Champs, Virginia District and Regionals.   Covers: MD state finals, VA Districts and Regionals tourneys, DC regular season results.  Usually publishes after the Memorial Day weekend tournaments finish up.
  • #3: Virginia State Champions crowned.  Covers: VA state tourneys, recaps MD, DC, Private School results.  Publishes mid-June once the Va state tourney wraps up.
  • #4: Players of the Year/All-State lists and final rankings; publishes early July once all the all-state lists are published.
  • #5: My theoretical “All DC/MD/VA Dream tournament” pairings (this post), once all the state champs are finalized.

Now that all DC, MD and VA public and private tournaments are complete, and as we wait for all the various local and national Player of the Year lists to publish, here’s a fun thought exercise.  If the various champs could commit to a “Tournament of Champions,” what would it look like?

Here’s a bunch of fun theoretical tourneys, with my predictions on how they’d play out too for the fun of it.

Possible Champions of Champions Baseball post-season tourney ideas


The All-Virginia champions league

This takes the champions from the 6 public divisions plus the 3 Private divisions:

6A: West Springfield (DC southern suburbs)
5A: Prince George (south of Richmond near Petersburg)
4A: Salem (just south of Roanoke in SW Virginia)
3A: Spotsylvania (near Fredericksburg)
2A: Page County (near Harrisonburg)
1A: Riverheads (in Staunton, just south of Harrisonburg)

VISSA Division 1: St. Christopher’s (Western Richmond)
VISSA Division 2: The Miller School (Albemarle, near Charlottesville)
VISSA Division 3: Walsingham Academy (Williamsburg)

What if you seeded this 1-9 based on classifications and played a single elimination tourney?

8/9 play-in: 1A:  versus VISSA Division 3: Riverheads vs Walsingham Academy

1 vs 8/9: 6A vs play-in: West Springfield versus Riverheads
2 vs 7: VISAA Div 1 vs 2A: St. Christopher’s vs Page County
3 vs 6: VISAA Div 2 vs 3A: The Miller School vs Spotsylvania
4 vs 5: 4A vs 5A: Salem versus Prince George

In years past I’d have seeded the public 6-A champ over the VISAA Division 1 champ; perhaps not this year though.  I think your semis in this draw are West Springfield, St. Christopher’s, The Miller School and Prince George.  West Springfield and St. Christopher’s advance to the final, St. Christopher’s wins.


Virginia Public Champions league tourney

Just using the 6 public school champions from Virginia, you could play a mini weekend tournament with two brackets:

Bracket 1:
6A: West Springfield
3A: Spotsylvania
2A: Page County

Bracket 2:
5A: Prince George
4A: Salem
1A: Riverheads

Play a double header round robin on Saturday intra-bracket, then the bracket winners play sunday.  I’d guess the two big teams (West Springfield and Prince George) advance, with West Springfield coming out on top.  In some prior years you could easily argue that the 4-A or 5-A champs despite being from smaller schools were better than the bigger 6-A champ … maybe not this year with all the 4A and 5A upsets we had.


DC/MD/VA showdown; a competition of local champions.

Thanks to redistricting, there’s now really two Class 6 and Class 5 regional winners in the area, adding to this fake tournament.

– Virginia Class 6 Region C champ: West Springfield
– Virginia Class 6 Region D champ: Battlefield
– Virginia Class 5 Region C champ: Freedom-South Riding
– Virginia Class 5 Region D champ: Potomac
– DCIAA champ: Wilson
– DCSAA champ: Also Wilson … so maybe we pull in Gonzaga, since St. Albans is the IAC champ.
– WCAC champ: St. Johns
– IAC champ: St. Albans
– MAC Champ: Potomac School
– PVAC Champ: (not sure they played baseball this season)
– Maryland At-Large: Riverdale Baptist
– Maryland 4A West champ: Bethesda-Chevy Chase
– Maryland 3A West champ: Thomas Johnson

You’d probably seed this as follows:

Riverdale Baptist
St. Johns
Battlefield
West Springfield
Bethesda-Chevy Chase
Potomac
St. Albans
Gonzaga
Thomas Johnson
Freedom-South Riding
Wilson
Potomac School

So a tourney would go:

  • 7 v 10: Thomas Johnson vs Potomac School
  • 8 v 9: Freedom-South Riding vs Wilson
  • 1 v 8/9: Riverdale Baptist vs Freedom-South Riding
  • 2 v 7/10: St. Johns vs Thomas Johnson
  • 3 v 6: Battlefield v Potomac
  • 4 v 5: West Springfield vs B-CC

I’d guess this draw is Riverdale Baptist, St. Johns, Battlefield and West Springfield in the semis, Riverdale Baptist and Battlefield in the final and an easy Riverdale win in the final.


Maryland-Virginia State Champs Show Down

Virginia Public champs
6A: West Springfield
5A: Prince George
4A: Salem
3A: Spotsylvania
2A: Page County
1A: Riverheads

Maryland Public Champs:
4-A: Howard
3-A: Thomas Johnson
2-A: Century
1-A: Boonsboro

Maybe you seed it 1-10 and have play-ins with the smallest teams.

8-9: VA 2A:  vs  MD 1-A: Page County vs Boonsboro
7-10: MD 2-A:  vs VA 1A: Century vs Riverheads

1 VA 6A vs 8/9 play-in: West Springfield vs Page County
2 MD 4-A vs 7/10 play-in: Howard vs Century
3  VA 5A vs #6 VA 3A: Prince George vs Spotsylvania
4  MD 3-A  vs #5 seed VA 4A: Thomas Johnson vs Salem

I’d give the top seeds the semis (West Springfield, Howard, Prince George, Thomas Johnson), West Springfield and Prince George in the final, West Springfield the winner.

 


Private School showdown

VISSA Division 1: St. Christophers
VISSA Division 2: The Miller School
VISSA Division 3: Walsingham Academy

MIAA Class A: Archbishop Curley
MIAA Class B: Boy’s Latin
MIAA Class C: Indian Creek

WCAC: St. Johns (DC)
IAC: St. Albans
MAC: Potomac School
PVAC: ?

Maryland At-Large: Riverdale Baptist

I’d seed this:

1. Riverdale Baptist
2. VISAA Division I
3. MIAA Class A
4. WCAC
5. VISAA Division II
6. IAC
7. MIAA Class B
8. MAC:
9. VISAA Division III
10. MIAA Class C
11. PVAC

hard not to see a Riverdale Baptist-St.Christopher’s final, though the semis between St. Christopher’s and Archbishop Curley would be good.

Written by Todd Boss

July 16th, 2018 at 2:33 pm

Posted in High School,Local Baseball

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