The playoffs have begun in HS baseball and softball, but the excitment ramps up this week with regional champions to be crowned.  Next week, it’s the sectionals.  Here’s a quick preview on which teams to watch:

BASEBALL
Division 1 Chippewa Falls sectional:  Top seeds: #1 Stevens Point, #2 EC Memorial.  Contenders: any of the top 8 seeds, and that’s not a stretch: consider that #8 River Falls has two regular season wins over ECM.   This section is wide-open, but I think the Old Abes have the capability of putting together a good stretch of baseball and will wind up their season at Fox Cities Stadium.  But it wouldn’t suprise me if any of the top 8 seeds got through.

Division 2 Barron Sectional: #1 seeds: Hayward, Somerset, Ellsworth, West Salem.  Contender: #2 Altoona.  There are plenty of good teams in this sectional, but I like what Ellsworth has been able to do during the course of the season.  So…look for the Panthers to edge Hayward in a sectional final.

Division 3 Cumberland Sectional:  #1 seeds: Grantsburg, Chequamegon, Prescott, Fall Creek.  Contenders: #2 Boyceville, #3 Elk Mound.   You could certainly make a case for seeding the entire sectional based on how the brackets shook out, with Prescott, Boyceville, & Elk Mound all lumped into the same regional.  The bad news for the Bulldogs and Mounders, is that they’ll meet in regional semi, so they’ll have to throw aces Ryan Bloom & Garrett Phillips in that game, instead of in a regional final matchup with Prescott.  There are good teams in this sectional, but I think Prescott is the team to beat.

Division 4 Bruce Sectional: #1 seeds: Bruce, Drummond, Elmwood, Greenwood. Contenders: #2 McDonell.  The Macks are a 3-time defending state runner-up, and they have the most dominant pitcher in the area (in any division) in 6-7 senior Kyle Cody, who has a good chance of being selected in the MLB draft.  The dilemma for McDonell coach Eric Wedemeyer is when to throw Cody.  My guess is that the Macks will try to get past EC Immanuel Lutheran without using Cody on the mound, hoping to save him for a regional final with Greenwood.  The Indians were able to edge the Macks 9-8 in the regular season, but they didn’t have to face Cody.  I’m going with the Macks for 3 reasons: Cody, Wedemeyer’s coaching, and postseason experience.

SOFTBALL
Division 1 Chippewa Falls Sectional: #1 seeds: Chippewa Falls, D.C. Everest.  Notice I did not list any contenders in this section.  No disrespect intended to any of the other teams, but in my mind, Chi-Hi is an overwhelming favorite to get back to the Goodman Diamond.

Division 2 Rice Lake Sectional:  #1 seeds: Altoona, Baldwin-Woodville, Rice Lake, Mosinee.  Contenders: #2 Black River Falls, #2 Tomahawk.
There’s good depth in this sectional with some historically strong programs, but with sophomore Abby Klopp, B-W has a legitimate ace that can carry a team to state.  The Blackhawks’ biggest challenge figures to be beating Rice Lake on its home field in a sectional final.

Division 3 Chequamegon Sectional:  #1 seeds: Elk Mound, Cadott, Hurley, Grantsburg. Contenders: Colfax, Fall Creek, Ladysmith.  Another section with good depth, but Grantsburg seems to be the best team in this bracket.  The Pirates’ only losses this season were to Division 2 Baldwin-Woodville  and Division 1 Superior, both by a 6-3 margin.  Among Grantsburg’s 20 wins are some impressive performances against much bigger schools.

Division 3 Necedah Sectional: Keep an eye on #1 seed Neillsville, which has quietly put together a 20-1 regular season.

Division 4 Gilman Sectional: #1 Seeds: Shell Lake, Northwood, Cornell, Thorp. Contender: #2 McDonell Central.  If momentum counts for anything, I like Thorp, which closed the season by winning 6 of 7 games, scoring in double figures in 5 of those contests.  If the Cardinals can throw strikes and make defensive plays, they’ll be playing in the state tournament.

Division 4 Boscobel Sectional:  #1 seeds: Cochrane-Fountain City, New Lisbon, DeSoto, Belmont. Contender: #2 Pepin/Alma.  The best game of this entire bracket sets up to be a regional final between C-FC & Pepin/Alma.  The Pirates won the regular season matchup, 7-4, part of a stretch in which the Eagles dropped 2 of their final 5 games.  I’m thinking that C-FC gets through that game and advances to state, although New Lisbon & Belmont will be major roadblacks.

Agree? Disagree? Want to share your picks?  Use the comment section below.

See you at the ballgames!

-BOB BRADOVICH

Posted under Hometown Sports

One week ago, in a unanimous vote, the WIAA Board of Control approved a proposal that keeps the boys state basketball tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison through 2020, while moving the girls tourney to Green Bay’s Resch Center.  That vote ended some nine months of speculating about where the tournaments would be played.

While most of the conversation over that time centered on the “where,” one of the key issues in this whole process is “when.”  The WIAA has been adamant that it wants its basketball tournaments to be played on its “preferred dates”: the second and third weekends in March.  There’s a definite logic in that position.  Play your state tournaments any later in the month of March, and you run into conflicts with your member schools being on spring break.   Beyond that, you wind up competing with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and the general onset of spring (and spring sports).

While a cynic may claim that all the WIAA cares about is maximizing attendance at two of its most prominent state competitions, it’s absolutely necessary that the association does just that.   The WIAA sponsors 22 sports, but only a few of those sports make money at the state tournament level.

There’s another part of the attendance issue, one that makes good sense to split the two sites.  This past March, the two best-attended sessions at the boys tournament were in the 12-14,000 range.  Neither of those crowds could have been accomodated at the Resch Center.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the Kohl Center seats were empty during Championship Saturday of the girls tourney–partly, due to those aforementioned conflicts.  Yet, the reality is that the girls tournament has been in an attendance decline for years.  Moving to Green Bay (and a smaller venue) might very well give the girls tourney some added energy.   If that happens, the WIAA could very likely keep that event in that city for the forseeable future.

One thing that won’t change: athletes, coaches, and teams will continue to work awfully hard to get to state–no matter where it is.  We’ll all continue to enjoy that journey.

-BOB BRADOVICH

Posted under Hometown Sports