Staff report
It’s the last year of the baseball state playoffs as we know it.
Eight classifications are coming in the fall, with more two-classification and even three-classification conferences coming and with a revision of the way teams will qualify for the playoffs and the way they will be seeded for the playoffs.
The RPI system still in use by the NCHSAA for this year says West Rowan is the best team in 3A West — and the Falcons may be — but West Rowan is seeded 11th in the 32-team bracket that was announced on Monday.
That’s a system practically screaming for revision.
While West Rowan’s seed is unfortunate, it wasn’t a shock. Everyone knew it was coming. East Rowan beat West Rowan twice during the regular season, fair and square, home and home, and the teams tied for first place, so the Mustangs earned the nod as the South Piedmont Conference champion. As far as the NCHSAA is concerned, there can be only one.
Conference champs are seeded 1 through 10 in the 3A West bracket, including those split-league “champs,” as long as the split-league champs met a modest performance criteria.
What’s a split-league champ? Well, if you had the best record among the 3As in a 2a/3A or 3A/4A league, you may have finished third in that conference, but you get one of those high seeds. That’s how it works.
West Rowan’s win against East Rowan in the recent SPC tournament was satisfying for the Falcons and meant more hardware for the trophy case, but it had minimal effect on playoff seeding.
East Rowan (22-5) is the No. 1 seed in the 3A West bracket and starts the playoffs at home on Tuesday night against No. 32 seed Dudley (14-11).
East was third in the final 3A West RPI rankings, but moved up to the No. 1 seed, as West Rowan and North Iredell (second in RPI) could not be seeded as conference champs.
Dudley was 37th in the final RPI rankings, and would have been out of the playoff picture, but it was an automatic qualifier for the playoffs as the second-place team in its conference.
West Rowan (23-4) starts the playoffs at home on Tuesday night against Ledford (15-11). Ledford was 18th in the final 3A RPI rankings. but was bumped down several notches. Ledford finished fourth in the Mid Piedmont Conference, but actually had a stronger RPI than North Davidson, the Mid Piedmont Conference champion. That was a crazy league.
Carson was 13th in the final 3A West RPI rankings, but didn’t get a home game, as the Cougars (14-9) were bumped down to 17th in the bracket, with so many conference champs moving up ahead of them.
The 17th seed is not usually a great place to be. You’re on the road in the first round and you’re likely playing the No. 1 seed in the second round.
Carson, the SPC’s third-place team, will travel to Belmont to play No. 16 South Point (13-8). South Point finished fourth in the Big South Conference, but was 12th in the final RPI rankings. Like Carson, South Point got bumped down in the bracket.
A Carson-East Rowan meeting is possible for the second round. Carson split with the Mustangs this season.
South Rowan (13-11) was 30th in the final 3A West RPI rankings and made the bracket as the No. 31 seed. South heads to Boiling Springs to play No. 2 Crest (20-4).
Crest won the Big South Conference. The Chargers were fourth in the final 3A West RPI rankings, but moved up to the No. 2 seed in the playoff bracket, as West Rowan and North Iredell moved down.
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