Pitcher's Duel at Gill Between North and Central Favored North

North traveled to Gill Stadium on a wet and gray day to take on the Central Little Green. We were in for a classic pitcher's duel as Connor Root pitched for North facing off against #34 (don't know his name) for Central. Both pitchers did an excellent job with their command by keeping the hitters off balance. The final line for Root was 2 hits, one walk, and no runs in 5 innings of work. The Central pitcher did an excellent job too, he hit one batter, gave up 4 hits, but it was a costly infield error that allowed North to plate the only run of the game.

In the 3rd inning, Mike Muise hit a ground ball deep into the hole at short. The shortstop made a great play on the ball and never had a chance at the runner but threw the ball over anyway. A poor throw allowed Muise to advance to 2nd. Louis Tarantino laid down another perfect bunt moving Muise to 3rd while arriving safely at first. With a 1st and 3rd Brandon Karkhanis hit a fly ball to the outfield allowing Muise to trot home and score the game's only run.

Central did threaten in the 4th or 5th inning with two runners on and 1 out. Root threw two ground ball outs to end the frame and quiet the potential rally. Jake Mellin (fresh of the IR) came in for the 6th and 7th frames and got 6 consecutive outs for the 2-7 hitters.

Kind of a weird day as neither team belted the ball. Credit both pitchers of course, but I don't know if the balls were wet. Many of the balls hit to the outfield just seemed to lack the legs they normally would have had.

North is supposed to have a makeup tomorrow with Pinkerton, but I don't see how that's going to happen with all of the predicted precipitation. I hope we get the games in, because we'll just be overloaded at the end.

Congrats nyk. Have you been paying attention to what team is lurking down there in the last playoff spot? Yep, Memorial. I realize there is alot of ball to be played before the dance starts, but that is one dangerous 1st round foe.

Keene {6 -1 at home} beats Salem in my upset special today { can it be considered an upset if only 1 team has managed to go to Keene and come away victorious}.

GNG wrote:Congrats nyk. Have you been paying attention to what team is lurking down there in the last playoff spot? Yep, Memorial. I realize there is alot of ball to be played before the dance starts, but that is one dangerous 1st round foe.

Keene {6 -1 at home} beats Salem in my upset special today { can it be considered an upset if only 1 team has managed to go to Keene and come away victorious}.

Hi GNG, I haven't been looking; trying to focus on one game at a time, although what difference does it make as I'm not the one playing or coaching!

Anyone facing Memorial in the 1st round will be in a spot of trouble. The batters need to be disciplined on one hand with him, but on the other hand you need to swing at the 1st fastball you see because his curve ball is deadly, I'd put his curve up there with Poore's and Turner's slider.

Now, I'll rant a little bit about the playoff format. Personally, I think it's unfortunate that a #16 seed (division and team don't matter--meaning I'm distancing myself from any one team and am generalizing) has the potential of beating the #1 seed because of one player. The #16 seed is the #16 seed for a reason and would be hard-pressed to win it all. Baseball and softball are the only sports where this can happen. Soccer, football, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, track, swimming, etc. require all athletes to perform. It's very hard to get beaten by any one person in these sports and a single-elimination format usually results in the best team advancing.

For baseball (and softball) I would like to see the number of team's whittled down and the playoffs employ a double-elimination format, like the kids were exposed to in youth baseball. This type of format almost always results in the best team winning.

Okay, I'm done ranting now.

In general, I've been impressed with the quality of play I've seen so far across division 1. Concord, Central, BG, Salem, Merrimack, Winnacunnet, South and North have played very well. I think it's difficult to chose any one of these as the clear cut favorite.

I have to disagree. What I've seen of Memorial is they are young team - unlike last year. They are where they are for a reason and won't pose a threat to the team that tops out at #1 seed.

Concord is creeping up and hitting on all cylinders - careful.

123ksurout wrote:I have to disagree. What I've seen of Memorial is they are young team - unlike last year. They are where they are for a reason and won't pose a threat to the team that tops out at #1 seed.

Concord is creeping up and hitting on all cylinders - careful.

I understand why you say that, but a pitcher like Sullivan can keep the best hitting teams from doing any significant damage. Should Memorial make the tournament, I wouldn't be surprised if they advanced to the quarter-finals.

I agree with you completely about Concord. They are fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game. This is why I say there really isn't any one team that's shoe-in for D1 state champs.

Big game for Memorial today - they've got Alvirne... A win puts them 2 up on Alvirne. I know in the end it's a points thing, but if it came down to tied on points, then head to head would be next factor.

JAF wrote:Big game for Memorial today - they've got Alvirne... A win puts them 2 up on Alvirne. I know in the end it's a points thing, but if it came down to tied on points, then head to head would be next factor.

Unless he's already thrown recently, I would think this is great game to throw Sullivan as he gives Memorial the best chance of winning. Don't be fooled by Alvirne by the way, they have some boys that can hit. They're issue seems to be that they are young in the pitching department.

nyk I love the rant. Very simple solution, but will never happen because the nhiaa can't see the forest thru the trees. Let everyone make the tourny, that would be 19 teams. Top 3 get a bye. This would be a reward for having a stellar season, and this would reduce greatly the chance of a first round upset by a team with one ace. It would also make every game important during the season knowing how crucial a bye could be in the first round.

GNG wrote:nyk I love the rant. Very simple solution, but will never happen because the nhiaa can't see the forest thru the trees. Let everyone make the tourny, that would be 19 teams. Top 3 get a bye. This would be a reward for having a stellar season, and this would reduce greatly the chance of a first round upset by a team with one ace. It would also make every game important during the season knowing how crucial a bye could be in the first round.

Thanks. This subject about playoff formats comes up every year (at least in blogs). I don't know if the NHIAA has considered alternative formats, but they really ought to. They clearly have thought about trying to balance the schedule in terms of fairness when it comes to the points system, why not revamp how the playoffs are conducted? I don't know if it's a cost issue (i.e. umpires and travel), schedule issue (in terms of trying to finish the games in June), or what, but I think the format should be modified along the lines of what we've suggested. It will lead to better match-ups. Let's face it, everyone wants to see the top teams in the final rounds.

The experiments are done in D3. For example - last year in D3 hoops they got ranked by the HEAL points... This year, they have the touchy, feely, make everyone happy and put all the teams into the playoffs format. That happened in basketball and its happening in baseball. Not sure of other sports.

For baseball I think the 12 team format is best - top 4 get a bye. That validates your hard work in the regular season and gives you a better chance against 5-12 in the "second" game. Don't see it happening though as the pendulum has swung the other way completely with the I need a hug crowd.

The other "issue" is that not all teams play each other in D3 - numerically and geographically they cover every corner of the state, so that's why they get special treatment. Maybe they should start the conference experiment...

JAF

Actually it was Class I (D2) that used the heal system last year. Chikid can give a great rundown on it.

Memorial 6 Alvirne 2. As it stands now Alvirne 3 wins, Spaulding 3 wins, and West 2 wins are going to be the teams left out. Memorial, Trinity, and Timberlane all have 5 wins.

Next 7 days there are going to be a bunch of teams playing a bunch of games. It's going to get interesting.

I talked to a lot of coaches in basketball this year and they hated the home/away points system this past season. Most of them thought the Heal Points System would've been better. People in D2 last year thought the Heal System was questionable at the start of the season, but when the dust settled and teams were finally rewarded for having a tougher schedule or winning games against better teams, people started warming up to the Heal System.

Scheduling in D2 is ponderous. How does Souhegan wind up playing Bedford and Portsmouth twice, while neighboring Milford and Hollis Brookline plays Bedford once and avoid Portsmouth all together. 9-3 Goffstown plays Bedford twice, but also avoids Portsmouth?