Altered States

Altered States No. 11
May 8, 2009

Another day in the books, and it followed the season’s theme — rain.

It’s been a pretty miserable week with all the cancellations. They finally got started at the SMAC tennis tournament and got a few matches in on Thursday, but I’d just started settling in by the time the rain was clearing the courts. North Point’s softball team managed to get in its first-round playoff game, a 14-0 win over Fairmont Heights. And that would be the most exciting part of the week — the baseball and softball draws. And what better to blog about than the upcoming playoffs.

Starting with baseball in the 3A South, Huntingtown is back in a familiar position as the top seed in the 3A South and will play the winner of Northern/Largo in the quarters. The top side of the draw wouldn’t look to have too much drama, but the bottom half with Chopticon (No. 2 seed), La Plata (No. 3) and Great Mills (No. 7) could provide some. Chopticon gets the Westlake/Great Mills first-round winner, while La Plata will host the winner of the Lackey/Potomac first-round matchup.

La Plata’s the defending state champ, and wasn’t that far off from having a much better record than the 8-6-1 it finished with. The Warriors also pushed Huntingtown as hard as just about anyone, had the Hurricanes on the ropes in what ended up an 11-10 Huntingtown win on March 30. The teams tied the second time they met. Huntingtown dropped just a game to Calvert on the regular season, and is looking for its third regional championship in the past four seasons.

Calvert, the No. 13 seed in the 2A South, is scheduled to play one of the top first-round matchups on Friday when it travels to fourth-seeded Marriotts Ridge. The teams went to extra innings in the region final last year, with Marriotts Ridge coming out on top. Calvert won the region two years ago. The winner of Friday’s contest figures to be the favorite to reach the regional final from the top half of the draw.

North Point earned the No. 3 seed, and will face the Douglass/Mount Hebron winner in the quarterfinals. Hammond, the No. 2 seed, could be a regional semifinal opponent for the Eagles, who after a 14-3 regular season could be poised to break through in the postseason.

After a relatively surprising regular season, Thomas Stone earned the No. 3 seed in the 4A East and wound up with a familiar quarterfinal opponent — sixth-seeded Arundel. Stone went on the road and upset Arundel 1-0 in each of the past two seasons. This time the Cougars get to host, with the winner likely to see North County in the semifinals.

Nothing looks too different on the softball side of things. After unbeaten regular seasons, McDonough took the top seed in 2A South and Huntingtown in the 3A South. McDonough is on the same side of the draw as fourth-seeded Hammond, setting the two up for a potential regional-semifinal clash, though Hammond would likely need to get by Patuxent — which has been a tough out in the playoffs the past couple of seasons — in the quarters. McDonough knocked off Hammond in the regional final a year ago.

North Point is on the bottom side of the draw, and in relatively good position to make a run. Don’t be surprised if the 11th-seeded Eagles make a run to the regional final. While wildly inconsistent through much of the season, the Eagles seemed to come together towards the end of the regular season and won their final three games by a combined 39-0, including a 10-0 win over La Plata. The Eagles also played tough against McDonough, losing 1-0 in both teams’ season opener.

Huntingtown is the top seed in the 3A South, but has defending state champ and second-seeded Northern on the other side of the bracket. The Hurricanes, who have claimed the regional championship in three of the four seasons in program history, topped Northern 13-12 in a wild one early in the season, though Northern pitcher Kaitlyn Schmeiser did not pitch in the contest. The late-season rematch never happened, thanks to the weather, but all signs would point towards the county rivals meeting again in the regional final.

Now, hopefully the rain can go away for a couple weeks…