2022 Mid-State League

We’re still on, right Miller?
?
update: PPD to next week.

five league games next week. M, T, W, TR, F. I’m excited. Let’s go arms!
 
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Fan01- said:
I agree the kid is a good pitcher. Not taking that away from him. But make no mistake this is not even close to the same Fisher team as last year.
I will never waiver, You can stat it up as much as you want. The truth is Fisher is not deep enough to win bigger games. Credit to Millersport and there coaches they are a much improved team.
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FC isn’t as deep as last year but the coaches do well in making adjustments and changes. Good staff in charge of a team with strengths that can snag big games when they get the wheels rolling. Slow start, young team. Who they are now isn’t indicative of who they will be in May.
 
FC 3
MP 0

Springer v. Levacy Pt. 2

Springer (FC): 7IP, 0R, 1H, 7K
Levacy (MP): 5.2IP, 3R, 2ER, 7H, 8K

Great “revenge” win; great team effort and performance all-around. Happy and proud of the underclassmen; defense. Beyond thrilled and proud of Chase Springer for his game on the mound.

Shoutout to Coach Everitt from MP for giving Chase the game ball afterwards, too.
 
Troy McClure said:
FC isn’t as deep as last year but the coaches do well in making adjustments and changes. Good staff in charge of a team with strengths that can snag big games when they get the wheels rolling. Slow start, young team. Who they are now isn’t indicative of who they will be in May.
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I 100% agree with you. They will get it figured out for sure. Just my opinion Millerport overall is a little better then FC at this point. . Lost 5 seniors from last year. That’s impossible shoes to fill being so young. And that’s ok it’s high school baseball. I know dock and if he had to pick one pitcher out of the league for one game, I know who he’s taking Lol. I have high expectations for Millersport. I really believe there a pretty good dam team from top to bottom.
 
Fan01- said:
I 100% agree with you. They will get it figured out for sure. Just my opinion Millerport overall is a little better then FC at this point. . Lost 5 seniors from last year. That’s impossible shoes to fill being so young. And that’s ok it’s high school baseball. I know dock and if he had to pick one pitcher out of the league for one game, I know who he’s taking Lol. I have high expectations for Millersport. I really believe there a pretty good dam team from top to bottom.
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Port is solid. Have followed the league for a good minute, this is the most talented and fundamental team they’ve had that I have seen. Very talented catcher, and he is a beast to have to pitch through.

I’d take Springer before the season, I’d take him even after the loss to MP and obviously I’d take him today & tomorrow.

One qualitative comment I would like to offer: duels are hard, and I can’t emphasize how hard a rematch duel is. If an outsider just happened to come upon today’s game, they wouldn’t have known Chase was who had the hard-fought but tough ‘L’ the first time around. He very clearly put the last game way behind him: came in supremely confident in his ability, knew he had the repertoire to make it work and with his pitching IQ knew how to keep Port off-balance. The hit he surrendered in the 6th, breaking the no-no (shoutout to Tyler Hall, he put it behind him and immediately went back to work. Trusted his defense, largely composed of first-year starters, trusted his novice catcher. Did his job, and he did it well. He did it damn well.

My heart went out for Chase last week, and it goes out for Levacy tonight. He wasn’t on the same level as last week (he largely was very close), but you could tell just like Chase he left it all out there. Chase worked supremely hard and pretty much came out of nowhere between ‘19 and ‘21; Levacy is a similar story (has superior tools and frame, 6’5” Lefty) in that he had lots of promise last year but his secondary pitches had issues (including a curve that he struggled to pull down.) This year he is much improved; I do feel ambivalent that he wasn’t saved for Berne on Friday (argument to be made that game was more pertinent to the league crown), because he is better than the other kid at the top of their rotation (who relieved him tonight; problem with the other pitcher is his ball DOES NOT move.)

It’s been a pleasure to watch Chase throw over the course of his career. Earliest memory was him throwing innings vs Sheridan as a freshman; have some really awesome memories of him vs DeSales, obviously NC in the District Title game, the game @ Beavers vs BU where the wicked clever and memorable “short leash” idea was utilized. Tonight is another gem in the memory box. There is an opinion held by some, including myself, that he’s going down as one of the best pitchers in FC history. No BS, either.

He lead the line of what was a pretty useful arm barn last year (yes I’m going to continue using that phrase), and he leads it again this year. A hidden benefit of tonight’s game: builds up the confidence and experience of our frosh behind the plate. It also was a solid team win, led by Chase, that sets in motion what can be a nice string of games heading up to next Friday vs BU.
 
I think Port can legitimately contend for a district title. I think FC is in a similar boat (at worst you can argue they reasonably can make district finals depending on draw and who throws) but both teams are similar in that it depends on how the brackets fall ahead of them. I can take MP over East Knox, maybe (??) Berne. I definitely can’t take them over Newark Catholic (MASSIVELY TALENTED BATTING ORDER.) I would give FC a slightly better chance vs NC than I would MP, in a hypothetical, because I like Springer & Dolci vs their order better than I would Morris & Mummey vs ours (*IF* the back half of our order can progress to a consistent clip in some form. Kinda saw that tonight vs Levacy/MP.)

But, there’s still a TON of baseball between now and draw day. I can’t give FC flowers on the season, yet, because we only saw one game (albeit a well-played game), and I do have to agree Port is probably slightly better than us (I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t excited to see us get it done today.)
 
Thinking out loud…

How clogged is the “not NC” bracket going to be? Last year it was seeds 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 that jumped in.
 
We’re finally back with a full slate of games in the MSL

Schedule for Today

BU at Miller - I’ll take Berne 18-2, Berne has been dominant and will continue to be.

BR at FCA - I’ll take FCA 5-4, I think this is the game of the day and I also think FCA is heavily underrated.

FC at HP - I’ll take FC 14 - 3, FC has been improving from what I’ve heard and seen and they will continue improving.

GCC at MP - I’ll take MP 14 - 1, MP has looked very good pitching this year from what I’ve heard.
 
Credit to Miller for a good playing surface with well-cut grass — good to see it.

FC 22
HP 8

Props to Prep. A handful of Quality At-Bats, good baserunning. They’re getting there.

A few FCA scores…

Millersport 14
FCA 9 (last week?)

Berne 12
FCA 10 (Saturday)

FCA 16
Rosecrans 4 (tonight)
 
A spring soliloquy…

Baseball is great; HS baseball is special; watching your community play HS baseball is beyond a blessing after 2020.

Unfamiliar territory this season is. Especially ruthless April on rainouts. Team that is playing what amounts to mostly (5/9) first-year players in the field and batting order.

Behind two different doors. Door ‘1’ is the team with the ace on the hill; they have the team’s one quality win to-date. In general they play really well together and get after the ball while playing smart. Good! Door ‘2’ is 1-2 in league play with the 2 and 3 pitchers on the bump. The first loss might be more attributable to 7 walks and other bad play in the top half of innings; second loss is defensive errors and mess-ups on offensive. Both of those losses are to an improved, cogent but otherwise average Rosecrans.

Where are the similarities between the first team and the second team? How are they different? Where does the difference lie? The 2 and 3 arms are 1-5 pitching on the year (although to be fair 0-3 of it is FU, WCH and Worthington Christian.) It hasn’t been bad pitching by those guys, necessarily. They did well down the stretch last year; they’re talented and have good baseball IQ. But they need some support defensively and offensively; that support in large part has to come in the form of no errors behind the plate, on the plate and in the field.

Leading + confidence + composure + smarts = better baseball. Makes better units with, and without, #1 on the hill. Come on, guys. Action sets the tone. You’re at FC, and May is the final month of the season for most teams in our area.
 
BU 7
FC 3

Berne’s got a solid team; for sure. Earlier in this year I had said starting pitching was an advantage before the year in FC’s column. I think the gap has significantly narrowed. I can agree with any argument that says it’s a coin-flip; don’t personally agree with any argument that Berne’s rotation/SP is better. That said, Winkler for BU has pitched like a true ace lately. That does look like a solid and true ‘1’ unit with him on the hill.

Berne being able to get work done with the 7-8-9 holes, especially in forming rallies and extending innings, is a key part in being a regional participant. In games like Friday, which can be reasonably assessed as a District Semi caliber matchup, one team having that can be enough. That separation in batting order experience, tools and plate presence wasn’t the only key to winning (BU fielding well vs FC having an uncharacteristically poor OF outing: young outfield; Winkler outperforming #1) but it cements the skillsets that batters 1-6 in the lineup bring and creates ample opportunities to make games hell for opponents.

Good game. Says a lot about both programs and the rivalry (esp. from a POV like FC in seasons like this) that so much goes into the game. Ace vs Ace; FC saving arms for it. Always an intense and brutal rivalry. See ya’s Tuesday for Round 2.
 
It has been a long season on Hoover. I think the FC win was the 2nd of the year. Youth movement is still about two years away.
 
bballfan48 said:
It has been a long season on Hoover. I think the FC win was the 2nd of the year. Youth movement is still about two years away.
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They’re always well-coached. Made some nice plays and batted well vs FC. Fun fact: Coach McCampbell has the most league rings among current coaches.
 
FCA 10
FC 4

continuation of game that was suspended at FC 3-2, t2, runner on 3rd;

Good game, FCA.
 
FC v BU; round 2, tonight.

Prime opportunity for FC to get some vengeance. Similarly, good chance for BU to see what they have in the arms after Winkler.
 
BU 11
FC 1 f/5

Ah, rats. No vengeance this year!

Good all around job, again, by BU top-to-bottom. Liked Winkler better as a shortstop last year and this year; has been very solid on the hill this season and when he’s not on the hill he’s making gems at SS. As expected. Solid job all around fielding by BU, serviceable and respectable pitching for them in a ‘bullpen’ game (good to see Burroughs go five innings.) Bats were there for Berne, as they’ve been all year.

I need to check my records (the confusion I have is ‘16 and whether that was outright or a split.) First outright league title in baseball for Berne in… god knows how long. That span might go back a very, very long time. As in, 60’s? Or earlier? The district title drought goes back to the Interwar/WW2 era.

Congrats to BU, from the folks on the other side of the rivalry. Good luck in districts and beyond.
 
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