This is the most exciting time of the year in local high school baseball. Conference tournaments have wrapped and regionals have started. Some dreams that began in the offseason have been shattered, others are still alive. Upsets have sent some of the area’s top teams and players home early, opening the door for Cinderella to dance.
The high school season is a snapshot, with the public school regular season coming and going in 20 games, followed by single-elimination playoffs. The private schools are able to play more games and the WCAC has a better-for-baseball, best-of-three format in its semifinal round and championship series. But even that season comes and goes in barely three months time.
The season’s brevity, however, is what makes the prep game so exciting. It’s not a drawn-out season with long playoff series that give casual fans an opportunity to tune out. Teams get seven innings - 21 outs - to determine who moves on, and who turns in uniforms. One bad inning, one hot starting pitcher, and in many cases, one run, is often the margin for error.
Take Pudge Gjormand’s program at Madison. Some of the teams he has had over there since the Warhawks’ last region title 12 years ago have been state-championship quality. Deep pitching, balanced lineups, dozens of players who have gone on to play collegiately.
And yet something every year seems to jump up and bite the Warhawks: A hot pitcher in McLean’s Joey Sullivan last spring; a high-scoring South County team that took an undefeated run to the state final in 2011; eventual state champ West Springfield in 2010; crosstown rival Oakton in back-to-back years in 2006 and 2007.
Four of the last six teams to knock Madison out of regionals have gone on to win the region title. Three of those losses came in the semifinals, which is the de facto play-in game to the state tournament.
And it’s not just the Warhawks that always seem to find postseason drama. Most area programs have their own regional stories, both good and bad. Two years ago, Marshall lost its first seven games before coming together late in the season for a run to the region semifinals. That 2011 South County team fell three runs short of matching the 2002 Madison team’s unbeaten season.
Oakton has been on both sides of late-game dramatics. The Cougars’ 2000 season rallied four times in the seventh inning during the postseason en route to the state title. And its 2006 team lost a one-run game to Monacan in the state final when an umpire ended the game on a questionable interference call.
In 1997, South Lakes rode the arm of Pat Pinkman to the region title, with the left-hander getting all four wins - two as a starter and two in relief - in the tournament.
In Friday’s first round of the 6A North Region Tournament alone, drama was served up in several doses.
Five of eight road teams won, with two of the four conference champions going down. Centreville scored seven runs in the seventh inning to knock out a Patriot team that looked primed for a deep run. South Lakes decided its first regional appearance in 12 years wasn’t enough, with ace Matt Wojciechowski tossing a shutout against Conference 7 champ Lake Braddock, which fielded a lineup with three first-team all-region position players.
In total, nine of the 17 players named first-team 6A North selections had their seasons end in abrupt fashion. Three teams with losing regular season records - Herndon, South Lakes and South County - advanced, while an Oakton team that started 9-0 and spent much of the season as the top-ranked team in our Top 10 Poll lost to Battlefield and ace Jake Agnos in a game that could very well have been a semifinal or championship game matchup.
The area’s top 5A teams - Stone Bridge and Marshall - received byes and open regional play tonight, as does 4A Woodgrove and 3A Loudoun Valley and John Champe. All are threats to make deep postseason runs, and Valley is looking for a second-consecutive state title.
This all leads me to the initial reason for the column: with all the good local postseason baseball, why is the baseball community forced to trek all corners of Northern Virginia to watch playoff games?
The former region format would have opening-round games at the higher seed, two sites for quarterfinal games, one for the semifinal round and a neutral site for the championship game. The first two rounds were played over Memorial Day Weekend, with afternoon quarterfinal games at the two sites that Monday in what created a fantastic atmosphere around the games.
Now, all regional games are at the higher seed and scheduled at the same time, which means spectators can take in one game each round and are left to text messages and Twitter updates to follow what is happening elsewhere. The past two seasons, the tournament has opened the weekend after Memorial Day, eliminating any chance of multiple games at the same field.
Why not take a cue from college baseball’s exciting postseason format? The NCAA Division I Tournament begins with four-team regionals, then advances to two-team super regionals, with the winners of the eight super regionals advancing to Omaha. And we could take it a step further, with the regionals held at neutral sites.
Get back to the first two rounds being held over Memorial Day Weekend. In the 6A tournament, hold the opening round that Saturday at 10:00, 1:00, 4:00 and 7:00 at two sites. Stagger game times for the No. 1 seeds, so if someone wants to watch all four conference champions play, they can do that. And if you get an especially intriguing opening-round game like the Battlefield-Oakton matchup, push that to the nightcap under the lights and really create a great atmosphere.
Some potential sites for the 16-team 6A North regional would be at George Mason University in Fairfax, Barcroft Park (home of George Washington University) in Arlington, and even Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge should scheduling work around the Potomac Nationals’ schedule. The first round games would be held on Saturday at Barcroft and Pfitzner, so you only need one day of usage at fields controlled by Arlington Babe Ruth and the P-Nats, respectively. Then hold the four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games and championship game at Mason, which goes largely unused once the school’s team has finished its season.
Hold four ‘sub regionals’ for the 12-team 5A North regional, which consists of schools spread geographically across the state. The Fairfax County-based Conference 14 champion would ‘host’ the two first round games on Friday at Mason, and a quarterfinal on Monday. The Loudoun-based Conference 13 champion would ‘host’ a sub regional at Fireman’s Field in Purcellville (or the Loudoun Hounds’ ballpark in Ashburn if that project ever breaks ground). The Prince William- and Stafford-based Conference 15 champion would ‘host’ at the University of Mary Washington, and the teams further south would be ‘hosted’ by the Conference 16 champion at James Madison University, or another school in that part of the state.
Then pull the four 5A semifinalists to one of those neutral sites on a four-year rotating basis for the semifinals and championship game.
A 6A schedule format of Saturday-Monday-Wednesday-Friday and a 5A format of Friday-Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday would give fans in the baseball community - and media members and college coaches as well - a chance to catch 17 elimination playoff games in a 9-day period. This year’s format would give those same folks the opportunity to see just four games in that same period.
Sure, teams won’t be able to take batting practice on the field for the first two rounds with the games starting 30-45 minutes after each other. So work with nearby high schools to host teams for BP.
Invite vendors, find sponsors, honor Little League championship teams between games, recognize the all-region players, hold 50-50 raffles, get a local celebrity or former Big Leaguer from the area to throw out the first pitch. The format would be more fun for players. It would generate a great baseball atmosphere and big gate for athletic departments, would increase local media exposure for the sport, and would give players more opportunity to be seen by college coaches.
Lacrosse and soccer continue to make gains on our sport. This means out-of-the-box thinking is needed to create buzz and excitement for players to continue coming out and not venture off to play other sports. Not a bunch of administrators sitting on their hands and putting together poorly-planned postseason events for our young athletes.
Photo Courtesy/Chantilly Baseball
