By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
The district high school baseball races have basically been decided, but there’s another race still going on that is even more important.
With only a few days left in the season, teams aren’t just worried about teams in their district. With one hand on the computer to check scores and the other on a calculator, coaches are trying to figure out what might happen when the playoff pairings are announced on Tuesday.
Keeping that in mind, there are some interesting scheduling matchups that you would otherwise never see and it’s all in the name of trying to accumulate as many power points as possible.
And as important as district play is, the power rankings are a completely different animal for more reasons than just pride.
“In his day and age of trying to accumulate power points however you can, scheduling is probably one of the most important parts of it,” Benton coach Dane Peavy said. “We thought we had a pretty substantial power point schedule, but you don’t know how the season is going to play out. As coaches, we can worry about that stuff but we want the kids to worry about game to game.”
“You really want to hold that position down because at the end of the day, it’s going to save you money by not having to go on the road all the way across the state,” Loyola coach Morgan Brian said. “You have to be conscious of what spot you are in (with power rankings).”
There are three local teams in the top five non-select Division I rankings, which are basically for Class 5A schools. Locally, most – but not all – Caddo schools are select and Bossier Parish schools are non-select.
So it’s not surprising that Benton (29-3) and Haughton (25-6) are near the top. Yet the local school that’s ahead of both is neither in Class 5A or in Bossier Parish.
Sitting at No. 2 is Northwood, which plays in District 1-4A. What’s more, the Falcons didn’t even win the district.
But some creative scheduling – and a 24-4 record – have put the Falcons in this lofty spot with only a few days to go. (Teams are divided equally into divisions based on enrollment for playoff purposes, which is why Northwood moves up to Division I for the post-season.)
“Our goal coming into this season was to be a top eight seed and get that first round bye,” Northwood coach Austin Alexander said. “We are in good position right now and we just need to win the rest of our games.”
The Falcons have won six straight in the last week and here’s where the schedule creativity comes in. If the schedule holds, they will play a stretch of five doubleheaders with lower classification teams, all of which have double-digit wins, in eight days.
“You set up the schedule before the season and hope that you’ve got the right opponents to get yourself in a good position,” Brian said.
If you had to rank the teams locally by how they have performed this season, most would agree that Benton would be at the top. The Tigers feature a solid and deep pitching staff and a very potent offense, having scored 10 runs or more 21 times.
“I would say our season has gone according to plan,” Peavy said. “I don’t think it’s been any less than we expected. Our expectation coming in was to have a really good season and I think we have.”
In fact, Benton has won 18 games by 10 runs or more, but power rankings do not take into account margin of victory, so even with that 29-3 record, the Tigers still need a win over Natchitoches Central Saturday to avoid sharing the district title as they hope to move up from their No. 5 spot in the current power rankings.
And even that might not be enough to move them past Haughton (No. 4) — a team Benton beat twice in district play.
All three – Northwood, Haughton and Benton — will get a bye in the opening round, but for those who like to look down the road, a top four seed would mean a potential two home playoff series.
In District 1-4A, Loyola was the surprise district winner as the Flyers went 5-1 in league play with four of those wins coming by one or two runs. Loyola has gone from 16-19 a year ago to 20-10 this season under Brian, who is in his second year. The Flyers have beaten both Haughton and Northwood this season.
“We’ve progressed a lot from last year,” Brian sad. “We are learning how to be consistent and grind out a complete season. I feel like we’ve done a good job on defense and swinging the bats, but it’s all about pitching in the playoffs and I’m hoping we can count on the guys we’ve been counting on all year to come through.”
Here’s how strong that district is: North DeSoto is No. 2 in the current power rankings in non-select Division II yet came in third in its own district race.
Still, the Flyers are in an extremely tight battle for playoff seeds 3, 4 and 5. Just a win or two by a team in another part of the state could make the difference in getting a top four seed.
In District 1-2A, Calvary has won the title and looks to have a Top 10 seed for the playoffs.
But not all the battles are at the top of the seedings. Several local teams are trying to make a push to either stay in the playoff field or make it in, including Byrd and Evangel in select Division I and Airline in non-select Division I.
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com