Trojan Fan

Well, committed. Can't sign until November. Looking forward to seeing Preston in Oxford this spring and Jake the year after. Thanks, USJ!

Two 1-run games. 4 complete games pitched by the starters in the 2 games. A total of 3 errors and 1 unearned run overall in the 2 games. 1 pitcher gave up 8 walks but only 4 hits and was able to strand 11 runners. Excellent baseball. I'm jealous of all who were able to watch both games. It would appear that everybody in attendance got their money's worth.

Something that struck me is that sub-state and state are so close together. Play Friday and possibly Saturday and then turn around and play again on Tuesday. Is it typically like this? I'd have thought that the idea of having pitchers go on Friday and then turn around on Tuesday would be something the officials wouldn't be in favor of and yet the schedule was set up to almost force that very thing. I have to wonder if coaches are deciding whether or not to throw their aces on Tuesday after having just thrown on Friday. I noticed in DII-A that USJ played their sub-state games on Thursday last week instead of Friday. I wondered if there was a graduation conflict or something but now it makes me wonder if they wanted to give their pitchers an extra day of rest and bumped the schedule up accordingly...smart move if so.

DCA 11-4 over SGIS to close it out. State tourney teams: University School of Jackson Jackson Christian School Knoxville Webb Donelson Christian Academy top 2 seeds from each region, I believe?

Jackson Christian rolls Franklin Road Academy 14-0 and 14-0 again to join University School of Jackson w/ a bid to state. Donelson Christian blasts St. George's 21-2 and then SGIS in turn run-rules DCA 10-0 to move to a deciding game today (sat). As noted previously, Knox Webb and ECS play a deciding game 3 today as well.

Briarcrest wins game 2. Not sure of the score, not there, but BCS wins and eliminates MBA and advances to state.

Briarcrest 2 MBA 1 Final in Game 1

Arlington gives Bartlett a loss from a district opponent for the first time in 72 games. Congratulations to Arlington for the big historic win and congratulations to Bartlett for a tremendous accomplishment that those in the program should cherish for a long time.

He has verbally committed to Ole Miss, but not signed since he's just a junior. Don't know for a fact, but I doubt Ole Miss offered based on his pitching. He's exceptionally fast with a good arm, solid outfielder. I think his offer came right after he ran a blistering 60 (no, I can't remember the time) in pretty cold weather. If he develops more as a pitcher I suppose he could end up throwing for Ole Miss. You can never have enough lefties, obviously, but you're correct that he was not offered based on his pitching first. I suspect they saw him run and had visions of Jordan Henry.

#1 pitcher is pretty good...lefty, throws pretty hard...Jamison, the QB on the football team. The offense is suspect and pitching drops off a bit after the first starter. They've improved as the year has progressed but they have very little margin for error against a good team. I'd be surprised to see them take a game from Webb. If they do it will be the first one but I'd still say Webb should take it in two. ECS is really young and will bring back most of their team next year and be pretty good.

Donelson Christian 2 Franklin Road 0 Knoxville Webb 5 Donelson Christian 2 Sub State: #4 E/M Ezell Harding @ #1 W University School of Jackson #3 E/M Franklin Road Academy @ #2 W Jackson Christian School #3 W St. George's @ #2 E/M Donelson Christian Academy #4 W Evangelical Christian School @ #1 E/M Knoxville Webb

Chrisitian Brothers won 10-0 over McCallie in 6. McCallie was hitless.

Sub State: #4 E/M Ezell Harding @ #1 W University School of Jackson #3 E/M Donelson Christian or Franklin Road @ #2 W Jackson Christian School #3 W St. George's @ #2 E/M DCA/FRA/Knox Webb #4 W Evangelical Christian School @ #1 E/M DCA/FRA/Knox Webb

Wednesday, May 12th results @ USJ: game 1 #4 ECS (2-1) 4 #5 St. George's (3-1) 8 Evangelical Christian School is the #4 seed from the West and will travel to East/Middle #1 seed for sub-state game 2 #5 St. George's (4-1) loser is West #3 seed in sub-state, winner clinches home field in sub-state) #3 Jackson Christian (2-1) n

Wednesday, May 12th update #10 Harding eliminated (0-2) #6 FACS eliminated (0-2) #8 Fayette Academy eliminated (1-2) #7 Rossville Christian eliminated (1-2) #2 Southern Baptist Educational Center eliminated (1-2) #9 Tipton Rosemark Academy eliminated (2-2) ECS/SGIS/JCS/USJ all in sub-state Tuesday May 11th results : loser's bracket #9 TRA (2-1) 0 #4 ECS (1-1) 12 (ECS qualifies for sub-state; TRA done) #5 St. George's (1-1) 9 (SGIS qualifies for sub-state; SBEC done) #2 SBEC (1-1) 3 winner's bracket #3 Jackson Christian (2-0) 7 #1 University School of Jackson (2-0) 11 (USJ clinches home field for sub-state) Wednesday, May 12th schedule @ USJ: game 1 #4 ECS (2-1) (loser is West #4 seed in sub-state) #5 St. George's (3-1) game 2 ECS/SGIS winner (loser is West #3 seed in sub-state, winner clinches home field in sub-state) #3 Jackson Christian (2-1)

Monday, May 10th update- changed a result above on TRA; conflicting sources; hopefully this gets it right #10 Harding eliminated (0-2) #6 FACS eliminated (0-2) #8 Fayette Academy eliminated (1-2) #7 Rossville Christian eliminated (1-2) Tuesday's schedule, May 11th: loser's bracket winners clinch sub-state bids; losers are done for the season #9 TRA (2-1) #4 ECS (1-1) #5 St. George's (2-1) #2 SBEC (1-1) winner's bracket winner clinches home field in sub-state #3 Jackson Christian (2-0) #1 University School of Jackson (2-0)

#10 Harding eliminated #6 FACS eliminated Saturday, May 8th schedule winner's bracket #1 USJ (1-0) 6 (USJ clinches a sub-state berth) #4 ECS (1-0) 0 #2 SBEC (1-0) 8 #3 JCS (1-0) 16 (JCS clinches a sub-state berth) loser's bracket #8 Fayette Academy (1-1) 13 (Fayette eliminated) #5 St. George's (1-1) 18 #9 TRA (1-1) (TRA wins, no score available, Rossville eliminated) #7 Rossville Christian (1-1) From 8 teams down to 6 on Saturday

DII-A West tournament Thursday, May 6 finals (all higher seeds win): #8 Fayette Academy 7 #9 Tipton Rosemark 3 #7 Rossville Christian 11 #10 Harding Academy 1 #3 Jackson Christian 12 #6 FACS 2 #4 ECS 10 #5 St. George's 6 Friday, May 7 schedule: #1 USJ 6 #8 Fayette Academy 1 #2 SBEC 6 #7 Rossville Christian 3 #4 ECS day off awaiting Fayette/USJ winner #3 Jackson Christian off awaiting Rossville/SBEC winner elimination games: #6 FACS #9 Tipton Rosemark Academy wins (no score available-FACS eliminated) #5 St. George's wins (no score available yet-Harding eliminated) #10 Harding Academy From 10 teams down to 8 on Friday

West Region tournament starts tomorrow (thur, may 6). 10 team double elimination w/ the two districts combined. 9 Tipton Rosemark 8 Fayette Academy winner to face #1 seed USJ in 2nd round on Friday 7 Rossville Christian 10 Harding Academy winner to face #2 seed SBEC in 2nd round on Friday 2nd round matchups already set: 3 Jackson Christian 6 FACS 4 ECS 5 St. George's Early prediction: USJ to take it all, JCS to take 2nd, and a big jumble for the last 2 sub-state spots. A potential winner's bracket semifinal matchup b/w SBEC and Jackson Christian looms large for the Trojans who took a beating in a single game only days ago at JCS and JCS is really playing well right now it appears. SBEC got all they wanted at the end of the year from a resurgent FACS squad. ECS improved over the year and is playing their best ball it seems and St. George's has had some big wins during the year. TRA made it to the finals last year w/ an overall losing record. They were simply at their best w/ their backs against the wall. It wouldn't be a shock for somebody to rise up out of the bottom of the bracket and take a top 4 slot. I'm going to say it will be mighty tough to get into the final 4 (and earn a sub-state bid) coming out of the #7-#10 seeding slots, though, having to use pitching for 1 more game than everybody else. Having the tournament spread over two different weeks will certainly help in that regard, though.

I'll give it another shot and see if we get a reply. DII-A West 1 finished up district play today SBEC 8-1 ECS 6-3 FACS 3-6 Harding 1-8 Of the 6 baseball playing schools in West 2, I believe University School of Jackson hasn't lost a district game and Jackson Christian's only losses are to USJ. At this point, those would appear to be the top seeds out of West 2. Not sure what the format of the region tournament is. Any standings available from East/Middle DII-A?

Who looks good over that way folks? How would you rank the top group at this point with an eye towards noting a top 4 that will move on top sub-state? How did the region end up working out schedules? The west stayed in two districts like in football. Only 4 teams in West 1 (SBEC,Harding, ECS,FACS) playing baseball and they're playing 3 game sets with each other. 6 teams in West 2 (USJ,JCS,TRA,Rossville Christian,St. George's,Fayette Acad) and they're playing 2 games against each other. There are a number of single games w/ West 1 and West 2 teams playing each other but I think only the district games will count towards seeding in the region tournament. Not positive, though.

Did Nathan Forriest get hurt? Read somewhere he did and surgery may be upcoming?

Big game for Asa Toney of SGIS today in a big environment putting St. George's in the chamionship yet again. I take NOTHING away from the 3 young men listed above. I have no doubt all 3 are deserving. I didnt' see two of them play so I can't even comment. I dare say that some East/Middle folks who were at Lipscomb today will agree that Toney is as deserving as this group of 3. Fine, fine senior year for the young man. I'll also say this might be the best coaching job I've seen out of their coach. To lose Elliott Williams, Laurence Bowers, Ray Parks, and several other talented seniors each of the last 2 years and yet STILL be in the SCG? Fantastic job, coach. Outstanding.

In all honesty, when DII had 3 classes for football that was probably the most reasonable grouping but there just aren't enough schools for 3 classes. There was also only 1 class for every other sport which wasn't good, either. Right now you've got a couple of schools that are under 100 kids in their HS (Riverside, Mt. Juliet, maybe?...can't recall but there are a couple at least) and ECS and Knox Webb approaching 500 apiece. No way those schools need to be in the same class but it is what it is. Just not enough schools in DII to move it around. There has to be a top and there has to be a bottom. If I recall both BA and Ensworth could have played II-A also but chose not to. I'm not about to blame 2 schools for choosing to play in a class they were assigned to. Life just isn't fair sometimes. Look at Lausanne. It's a very good academic school in Memphis and they have very good boy and girl basketball players choosing to go there to get their academics up or just get in the best academic environment they can plus play w/ other very good players. It's smaller than SBEC or maybe it's right at the same enrollment but SBEC will never have that b/c they have very good public schools all around them. Lausanne has made it a priority to have good basketball and it shows. SBEC just isn't going to have D1 prospects up and leave the 6A school down the street to come play ball at SBEC b/c they can get what they need at the public school. The school wants to do well, too, but they aren't going to go out and try to build a program by intentionally attracting kids who wouldn't already be interested in the school first, sports second. They're just not THAT into winning in sports. I'm not completely sure SBEC could attract lots of athletes especially for sports when they can get what they want in the public schools around them. Sometimes I wish they were but I admire the stance of the Admin...as well as that of the Lausanne folks as well. I have NO issue w/ Lausanne committing to having very good basketball teams. None at all. The academics are very good at SBEC but the public schools around them offer very good academics as well. That's another thing. If you want to do well the resources are there for you to take advantage of when not every kid going to Lausanne lives in a school district where they can say that. Many do. Some don't. It's life. Circumstances are what they are. We aren't all equal. It's just life. You can't legislate every single difference in circumstance out of HS athletics. As private schools, people just need to live their mission, do their best w/ what they have, and feel blessed by everything they do have.

I'd agree that I think ECS is probably the best overall team from the West but unlike in previous years anybody can win on a given day. Lausanne is playing with a LOT of confidence right now. If you go back to the Elliot Willliams/Laurence Bowers St. George's teams and the Marlon Brown Harding teams, I just don't see anybody in the West that's at that level this year. It's much more wide open at the top than in previous years. I have no clue about East/Middle but if there isn't a really stud, dominant team over that way, then the sub-state and state tournament games could really be wide open all the way through. That's got to be good for the fans wanting good games.