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Final 2015 Prep Baseball Update: Virginia State Champions crowned, Player of the Year lists

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Madison HS is your 2015 6-A state champ.

Madison HS is your 2015 Virginia 6-A state champ.

Here’s our final post on High School baseball for 2015 in the area.  We previously posted updates on:

In this post, we will cover the various Player/Teams of the year that have been released, Virginia State tournaments and re-cap MD, DC and private schools.

All the Virginia state tourneys ran the weekend of 6/12/15 to 6/13/15.  All Virginia state brackets available from this link at VHSL.org.

Player of the Year Awards

Before we get to the Virginia playoff results, some player of the year and all-area teams have been announced.

Gatorade announced their State player of the year awards:

  • Maryland: Chopticon’s Ljay Newsome, who pitched the game of his life in the Maryland 3-A championship, won the award in Maryland.  He has yet to declare for a college but was drafted (26th round by Seattle).
  • Washington DC: St. John’s A.J. Lee won the award for the 2nd consecutive year.  Committed to Maryland.
  • Virginia: The Steward School (Richmond)’s Nic Enright won the award in Virginia.   He’s committed to Virginia Tech.

Louisville Slugger All-Americans announced; Ljay Newsome and A.J. Lee were named to the first team All-American.

Locally, some local player of the year awards:

  • The Washington Post’s 2015 All-Met announcement, with mostly familiar names that we’ve discussed in this blog this spring.  A.J. Lee was your All-Met player of the year.  Cody Morris named to his third straight All-Met team despite his Tommy John surgery.
  • The Baltimore Sun’s 2015 All-Metro Baseball Team.  Player of the year is Truman Thomas of Southern (2-time defending Maryland 2-A champ).  Ironically Morris was only Baltimore 2nd team.
  • Richmond 2015 All-Metro team: pending
  • Tidewater area
  • All 2015 6-A North region teams via InsideNova.com.  6-A North player of the year was Oakton’s Joe Rizzo, a *junior* who hit over .600 for the season.  He’s an early commit to South Carolina.
  • All 2015 6-A South Region team: co-players of the year Bodie Sheehan, First Colonial, a Lefty committed to William & Mary and Nathan Eaton, Thomas Dale, a SS/RHP committed to VMI.
  • All 5-A North: Marshall HS C Mitch Blackstone (Cornell commit) named the 5-A player of the year (he was also all-Met).
  • All 5-A South: pending
  • All 4-A North and 4-A south teams: pending
  • All 3-A East: Loudoun Valley’s Jack DeGroat (Liberty) the regional player of the year.
  • VHSL All-State Teams: pending
  • VISAA’s 2015 All-State teams, Division I, II and III
  • Maryland MIAA All-State teams: pending.

6-A State Finals: held at Robinson and Lake Braddock HS in Northern Virginia (which are odd-choices; Robinson and Lake Braddock’s fields aren’t exactly the nicest available fields in the area.  Nor do they have the largest stands.  But, those are the two biggest high schools around, so perhaps that’s why they were selected.  Of course, in previous years Fairfax HS was frequently used, with its ridiculously short LF porch, so maybe Robinson’s larger field is better.  Most people believe Madison has one of the nicest HS fields in the area … but it rarely gets selected as a host for some reason when the cycle for hosting comes back to NoVa).

  • 6-A North: Winner Madison (Vienna) (22-5) , runner-up Chantilly (20-6)
  • 6-A South: Winner Western Branch (Chesapeake) (22-3), runner-up First Colonial (Virginia Beach) (21-4)

6-A State Semis Results: Madison pecked away at First Colonial and ended up breezing to a 7-2 victory in the first semi.  Madison’s senior ace Brian Eckert (Radford commit) pitched 6+ innings of one run ball in his final appearance for the Warhawks.  In the nightcap, Chantilly got revenge from last year’s state final and pounded the defending 6-A champ Western Branch 8-3 to make the 6-A state final a rematch of the regional title game and an all-northern Virginia affair.

6-A State Final: In the state final, Madison’s junior lefty Matt Favero started the game … and he finished it.  Madison jumped ahead 3-0 but Favero got knocked out in the 4th after giving up 5 hits and 5 unearned runs.  Madison clawed their way back though, tying the game in the 6th and then loading the bases in the bottom of the 7th with no outs.  There, Favero came up and got the walk-off hit (twitter link to video of the hit) to clinch Madison’s 4th state title (2015, 2002, 1971 and 1968).  Kudos to Chantilly; two straight state finals; their coach (Kevin Ford) deserves his coach of the year accolades.

Madison’s feat is all the more impressive when looking at their lineup; outside of their ace lefty Eckert and one position player, the rest of their starting lineup in the state tournament are underclassmen.  They could be quite dominant in 2016.

6-A State champ: Madison (Vienna) with a 24-5 record on the season.

5-A State Finals: held at Robinson and Lake Braddock HS in Northern Virginia

  • 5-A North: Winner Stone Bridge (Ashburn) (21-5), runner-up Marshall (McLean) (21-5)
  • 5-A South: Winner Hickory (Chesapeake) (22-3), runner-up Freeman (NW Richmond) (19-6)

Stone Bridge plays at 3pm at Lake Braddock, Marshall at 7pm.

5-A State Semis Results: As with the 6-A tournament, the 5-A final will be an all-Northern Virginia affair as both local teams won.  Stone Bridge’s Brett Kreyer threw a one-hitter as Stone Bridge beat Freeman 6-0 in one semi.  Marshall took advantage of an ill-timed error that would have ended an inning and a rally and eventually beat the defending champ’s Hickory 7-4.

5-A State Final: In the state final, Stone Bridge fulfilled its “ewing theory” credentials by getting further without J.B. Bukauskas than they ever did with him, handling Marshall 9-4 for its first state title.

5-A State champ: Stone Bridge with a 23-5 record on the season.

4-A State Finals: held at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

  • 4-A North: Winner Jefferson Forest (Forest/Lynchburg) (19-7), Fauquier (Warrenton) (19-6), runner-up (by fft after the fact)
  • 4-A South: Winner Glen Allen (N. Richmond) (21-3), runner-up Hanover (N. Richmond)  (18-5)

4-A State Semis Results: Glen Allen took out Fauquier in the first state semi final 6-4, facing the Warrenton team after they had to forfeit their 4-A north final victory and settle for second place.  In the other semi, Jefferson Forest outlasted two-time defending state champion Hanover 4-3 in extra innings.

4-A State Final: In the final, Glen Allen scored four early and was never threatened, beating Jefferson Forest 9-3.

4-A State champ: Glen Allen (N. Richmond) with a 23-3 record on the season.

3-A State Finals: held at Liberty University in Lynchburg.

  • 3-A East: Winner Loudoun Valley (Purcelville) (22-2), Runner-up Lafayette (Williamsburg) (18-6-1) (note: these teams were declared co-champs; the positions must have been determined by a coin-flip).
  • 3-A West: Winner Monticello (Charlottesville), runner-up Rustberg (outside of Lynchburg)

3-A State Semis Results: In the first semi, Loudoun Valley upended Rustberg 6-0 with Liberty commit Jack DeGroat throwing a complete game 2-hitter with 17 strikeouts.  On the other side, Lafayette destroyed Monticello 11-0 to setup the state final that should have been the regional final.

3-A State Final: In the state final, Lafayette hit a solo homer for the winning run in the top of the 7th before closing out Purcellville’s Loudoun Valley 5-4 for Lafayette’s first ever state baseball title.

3-A State champ: Lafayette (Williamsburg) with a 20-6-1 record on the season.

Smaller Classifications: held in Salem and at Radford University.

  • 2-A match-ups: Strasburg (corner of I-66 & I-81) (25-1) vs Lebanon (SW corner of Virginia), Virginia High (Bristow) (24-2) vs Maggie Walker (Downtown Richmond).  In the semis, Virginia High ended Maggie Walter’s season 8-3, and Lebanon ended Strasburg’s excellent season 8-2.  In the 2-A West rematch for the state title, Virginia High bashed their way to a 16-8 victory to repeat as Virginia 2-A champs..
  • 1-A match-ups: Honaker (SW corner of Virginia) v Lancaster (King George peninsula), William Campbell (Gladys south of Lynchburg) vs Radford.  In the semis, the two 1-A east teams advanced for a rematch, wherein William Campbell turned the tables on Lancaster, winning the 1-A title 16-4.

Recent Virginia HS champs:  Before 2014, we just covered AAA, which now is split between 4-A, 5-A and 6-A divisions.

2014: see this post for 2014’s state tournament wrap up for all 6 divisions.

  • In 6-A, Western Branch d Chantilly 6-4.  McLean and Cosby were state semifinalists.
  • In 5-A, Hickory d Freeman 6-4.  Stone Bridge and the surprising Freedom-South Riding semi finalists.
  • In 4-A, Hanover d Millbrook 7-1.
  • In the smaller classifications, Loudoun Valley (Purcellville) won 3-A, Virginia High (Bristol) won 2-A and Northumberland (Heathesville, on the King George peninsula) won 1-A.

2013 AAA: Hanover d Great Bridge. Hanover’s super-junior Derek Casey (now at UVA) outlasts Great Bridge and their 1st round talent Connor Jones (now UVA’s Friday starter after spurning a likely late 1st round draft position).  Lake Braddock and Oakton beaten in the semis.

2012 AAA: Lake Braddock d Kellam 4-0. Lake Braddock lost to West Springfield in the regional title game but then blitzed to a state championship.

2011 AAA: Great Bridge d South County in the state final, giving the powerful South County its first and only loss on the season after starting the season 28-0.  Lake Braddock was the regional finalist and lost to Great Bridge in the state quarters.

2010 AAA: West Springfield d Woodbridge in the final, giving Woodbridge its only loss on the year. WT Woodson regional finalist.

Complete history of Virginia HS Champions: from VHSL’s website.  Covers all sports and has results for a century.

Maryland Recap

See previous post for MD state final wrap-ups.  Brackets here at the MPSAA website.

A quick list of past Maryland State champions by division:

The Maryland public high school seasons are now complete.

 

DC Public Schools/DCIAA/DCSAA Recaps

  • DCIAA: Wilson won its 23rd consecutive DCIAA regular season title, extending its city league winning streak in the process.  DCIAA tournament supposedly ran through 6/3/15, though I cannot find any evidence that it occurred.  Perhaps it has been replaced in total by the DCSAA tourney.
  • DCSAA:  In the DCSAA final, Gonzaga beat St. Albans 2-1 at Nats Park on a controversial interference call that turned a tag-out at the plate into the decisive run.

 

Private Leagues: WCAC/MAC/IAC and VISAA/Maryland Private

All local area Private schools’ seasons are now complete.

Local and National High School Baseball Ranking Lists:

  • Washington Post All Met Sports Final Baseball top 10: Updated/finalized 6/17/15 at the end of the spring prep season.  Madison 1, Gaithersburg 2.  If I had ranked them, I likely would have gone Madison 1, Gaithersburg 2, Spalding 3, Stone Bridge 4, Chopticon 5, Chantilly 6, Loudoun Valley 7, St. Johns 8, Oakton 9 and Marshall 10.  Battlefield HM.  I was pretty close.
  • Baltimore Sun Final Rankings page : dated 5/25/15: They also have Spalding #1, then Calvert Hall, St. Marys, 4-A finalist Severna Park and then 3-A finalist Mt. Hebron.  Reservoir 6th.
  • Hampton Roads Baseball top 10 page: dated 5/19/15: Western Branch #1, then Grassfield, Hickory and First Colonial.  Needs updating.
  • Baseball America’s High School top 50 (Final ranking 6/17/15): Madison #24 in final poll, Stone Bridge #42.
  • USA Today High School top 25 (most recent ranking 6/17/15): Madison at #36, Liberty Christian #43, Spalding #44 and Western Branch #49.
  • MaxPreps top 25/top 50 lists, which has a hand-picked and a computer/power ranking list.  6/15/15 rankings.  No DC/MD/VA teams in MaxPrep’s “Excellent 50.”  Highest ranked teams in the extended rankings are Liberty Christian at #71, Chopticon at #95.  Madison is in the #400s, making one question these rankings slightly.

Resources:

Written by Todd Boss

June 15th, 2015 at 8:38 am

Posted in Draft,Local Baseball

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DC/MD/VA District High School Tournament Report: 2015 post-season

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Here’s my first cut through tracking the various local high school baseball tournaments.  As we learned in 2014, Maryland and Virginia’s schedules are quite off from each other, with Maryland’s state tournament starting before Virginia’s public high schools even finish their regular seasons, but we’ll keep track the best we can.  Here’s 2014’s final prep wrap-up post, with all the various winners noted.

As the Maryland playoffs kicked in, there was an interesting WashPost article about how to setup your pitching for the playoffs.  Ironically, one of the main teams mentioned (Reservoir) was upset in the Maryland playoffs, perhaps due to their rotation choices.  Personal connection useless tidbit; the Chantilly coach (Kevin Ford) was a long-time local Vienna player and we played with him and his brother (Jeff Ford) all growing up.

Lets get to it.

Northern Virginia

Virginal district tournaments get started last weekend and most are scheduled to finish this week.  The VHSL site has some district brackets already published.  Here’s a preview of the district tournaments for local conferences with the leading contenders.

The top four teams from each district tourney form the 16-team regional brackets, to be published later on once all the divisions are finalized.

  • 6-A Conference 5/Concorde: Oakton and Chantilly are the 1/2 seeds, and Oakton has to be a favorite for the 6-A North regional title.
  • 6-A Conference 6/Liberty: McLean and Madison are 1/2 seeds, playing semis on 5/19/15.  Madison lost out to McLean for the district title but may be a co-regional favorite with Oakton.
  • 6-A Conference 7/Potomac: South County & Lake Braddock perennial favorites.
  • 6-A Conference 8/ Cedar Run: Rivals Patriot and Battlefield are 1/2 seeds and have already played three times this year.  Both should challenge for the regional title, but I suspect they’re slightly behind the Oaktons and Madisons this year.

I’d love to see an all-Vienna regional final, but teams like Chantilly, Battlfield and McLean could be pesky.

In the 5-A division:

  • 5-A Conference 13/Capitol: Marshall and Edison are the 1/2 seeds, as they were last year.
  • 5-A Conference 14: Stone Bridge repeats as conference champ, with Broad Run the 2 seed in this small group.
  • 5-A Conference 15: Mountain View and Potomac are 1/2 seeds.
  • 5-A Conference 16: Halifax, Patrick Henry-Ashland are perennial favorites.

I’d guess Marshall and Stone Bridge are early 5-A regional favorites, but we have no idea how good some of these non-DC area teams are.

There are some DC-local teams in the 4th and smaller divisions (mostly in Loudoun County).  We’ll go through them once their brackets are made available on VHSL.  The best 4-A team out there is probably Loudoun Valley, currently in the WP top 10.

Maryland

At this point, the Maryland State tournament is well underway, with all four “regional” champions crowned and the State semis set for 5/19/15.  Brackets here at the MPSAA website.  The Washington Post/AllMetSports.com reviewed all the Regional finals in this online post here.  We’ll run-down the regional results with some surprises:

  • 4-A Regionals: both of last year’s finalists (Chesapeake and Sherwood) lost early as new blood takes over Maryland states.  Perry Hall out of Baltimore took out both number 1 seeds in its regional to take the 4-A north.   Wise from Upper Marlboro also took out two PG-county #1 seeds to win the 4-A south.  Severna Park beat last year’s 4-A champ Chesapeake en route to the 4-A East championship, and the 4-A West regional final came down to perhaps the two best local Maryland teams, with current #2 All-Met ranked Gaithersburg taking out Montgomery Blair to reach the state semis.  State Semis: Perry Hall v Severna Park, Gaithersburg-Wise at U-Maryland on 5/19/15.  State final is scheduled for 5/22/15 at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen.
  • 3-A Regionals: Last year’s state finalist North Harford (Plyville in North Maryland) repeated as 3-A north champ.  Mt. Hebron in Ellicott City pulled the big upset and beat last year’s champion Reservoir in the 3-A East regional final (perhaps because Reservoir lost their ace Cody Morris to TJ surgery).  Chopticon (way down in St. Mary’s county) and Urbana (just south of Frederick) filled out the 3-A state semis, beating last year’s regional winner Thomas Johnson en route.  State semis set for Joe Cannon stadium in Hanover on 5/19/15.
  • 2-A Regionals: Eastern Tech, Patterson Mill, South Carroll and last  year’s champ Southern make up the 2-A state semis (mostly smaller schools outside the DC area).
  • 1-A Regionals: McDonough, Colonel Richardson, Douglass and Brunswick make up this year’s 1-A state semis (mostly smaller schools outside the DC area).

 

DC

  • DCIAA: the regular season runs through 5/20/15 and the DCIAA tournament runs through 6/3/15.
  • DCSAA: the 2015 tournament has yet to be scheduled.

Remember, there’s not usually much suspense in who is winning the DCIAA; Wilson has not lost to a DCIAA opponent in more than 20  years.

Private Leagues: WCAC/MAC/IAC and VISAA/Maryland Private

  • MIAA: Powerhouse Spalding beat Calvert Hill to repeat as MIAA Class A champs.  St. Mary’s-Annapolis won the MIAA-B championship, also for the 2nd year in a row, and is 52-3 over the past two seasons.  ?? won the MIAA-C.
  • VISAA: Liberty Christian repeated as the VISAA Division 1 champ.  Local teams O’Connell, Flint Hill and Paul VI entered but lost (the entry to this tourney seems to be done via rankings, as opposed to results in the respective league’s post-season tourneys, since Flint Hill was upset but still got invited to VISAA).  Greenbriar Christian took the Division 2 title and the Southampton Academy took the Division 3 title among smaller Virginia private schools.
  • WCAC: St. Johns topped DeMatha in a 3-game series to win the WCAC for the 2nd year in a row.
  • IAC: Georgetown Prep beat Landon to win the IAC, avenging their loss in the finals last year.
  • PVAC: Sandy Spring Friends defeated Jewish Day school for the inaugural title in this fledgling league.
  • MAC:  the Potomac school beat St. James (who upset #1 seed and defending champ Flint Hill) in the final.

My master list of links used to cover HS Baseball:

Local and National High School Baseball Ranking Lists:

  • Washington Post All Met Sports Baseball top 10: Spalding, Gaithersburg 1-2, then Oakton, Madison, and Battlefield.  Stone Bridge 8th despite a win over Madison in Vienna.
  • Baltimore Sun Rankings page: They also have Spalding #1, then Calvert Hall and Reservoir.
  • Hampton Roads Baseball top 10 page: Western Branch #1
  • Baseball America’s High School top 25 (most recent ranking 5/5/15): no DC/MD/VA teams listed.
  • USA Today High School top 25 (most recent ranking 5/6/15): Western Branch closest to top-25, ranked 30th.  Spalding (Washington Post’s #1 team) ranked 50th nationally.
  • USA Today’s Virginia-only rankings: no longer seem to be in existence.
  • MaxPreps top 25/top 50 lists, which has a hand-picked and a computer/power ranking list.  5/18/15 rankings.  No DC/MD/VA teams in MaxPrep’s “Excellent 50.”

Resources:

  • Washington Post’s AllMetSports section with standings and schedule results.
  • InsideNova.com‘s coverage of high school sports, but has put limits on the number of stories you can read.
  • The Connection family of newspapers has a sports section that is rarely updated, but it does do some coverage.
  • MaxPreps.com also has some non-paywall HS information that comes in handy too.
  • 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.
  • Fredericksburg.com has some local coverage of Fredericksburg and Woodbridge teams.
  • Richmond Times-Dispatch has a HS scoreboard.
  • Hampton Roads Pilot (Hampton Roads) has scores for teams in the Chesapeake/Norfolk/Va Beach area.
  • The Baltimore Sun’s high school page has information on some of the programs outside the DC area mentioned in the Maryland section
  • I use perfectgame.org to look up high-end HS prospects.
  • VHSL’s and MPSSAA home pages for playoff brackets and updates for VA and MD respectively.

Written by Todd Boss

May 18th, 2015 at 1:37 pm

Posted in Local Baseball

Tagged with , ,