East TX

Matt Menard has been proving himself time-after-time all year; but because he is a Sophomore no one is giving him his due.

A good assay on slow pitch!  Thank you. Again, BC may go with what they think is their strong suite; most probably high speed dancing hardballs. Slow Pitching seemed to work against OF up at Buna--only one hit in 5 2/3 innings. I have a hunch that if OF goes with 80-82 mph against BC, the Cardinals will welcome the lower velocity scheme. Also, traditionally HR numbers seem to dovetail with the quality of Pitching being faced.

Dude, That was a very accurate analysis that you have made of the ballgame that we both saw..Congrats. In Poland, their army was highly skilled in horsemanship and swordsmanship.  They were totally prepared for a war fought even two decades before. Problem was: Germany's attack was with blitzing tanks and rolling quick-set-up artillery. My point was/and is, Orangefield most probably will face skilled Pitchers like Johnson and Hicks and others that have a fastball and many good pitches that also have quite high velocity! Preparing for the 80-82 mph pitching is maybe quite noble but my guess is; the Pitchers that you will face will have a scorching set of varient fastballs AND a fair array of only slightly slower hardball finesse. It will be interesting as to how this all plays out.  BCs pitching that may be faced include Hicks with four years of HS ball including even a final four exposure as a Freshman; Mitch Hubbard a Sophomore with a variety of proven lefty skills; Hayden Guidry a Freshman with exceptional poise; Forrest Zoch a Junior that hits 90 mph and seems to depend on an unusual lefty socket-rotation that gives his pitches a bit of raw deception; and Zack Smith, a Sophmore: a really nifty aggressive Uth. I will be interesting as to how these teams pan out in District play based on preparation strategy.

3ABASEBALL.COM’S TOP 25 (March 23) 1.  Robinson 17-0 2.  Lubbock Estacado 14-5 3.  Pleasant Grove 15-2 4.  Jasper 15-2 5.  Giddings 11-2 6.  Bridge City 10-3-1 7.  Orangefield 13-2 8.  Prosper 15-1 9.  Argyle 12-3 10. West 15-5 11. Andrews 10-3 12. Celina 11-2 13. Robstown 9-6 14. Carthage 9-6 15. La Grange 12-1 16. Sweeny 11-2 17. Bullard 11-4 18. Sinton 11-8 19. Lufkin Hudson 9-7-1 20. Lucas Lovejoy 10-4-1 21. Boerne 11-3 22. Longview Spring Hill 10-3 23. Farmersville 12-3-1 24. Huffman-Hargrave 8-5-1 25. Princeton 11-6

I watch the Buna game last night.  It is hard for me to determine just how strong OF may be based on the fact that the Buna Pitching was around 80-81 mph!  Some of the OF scores were set up on walks and passed balls. Certainly OF has good athletes but possibly playing 2As with regular pitching is not preparing them for Hicks at around 92 mph on his fastballs etc:. I really am not worried too much for either team; good chance they are both shoo-ins for the bracket play.  I can somewhat pull for both teams: since hopefully these teams again play each other deep in the Region III bracket play........... Hopefully the best team will represent our Region going to the final four.

Would agree with this list--except Bridge City and Jasper have proven to be quite a bit better than Orangefield thus far.

I am not sold on the Poll logic here......I watched BC whip Nederland with a Freshman pitching.....          PNG is VERY strong and proving it!....... OF just was lucky enough to beat Deweyville 8-7, that does not justify such high ratings. One of us has some skewed logic, or maybe both of us.  LOL

Who did each team pitch?

Congrats to Cardinals on this one-- Westlake-- is not a giant school in Louisiana; but are known as a "giant killer" LOL That is a surprisingly high winning score!  WOW

Are you positive that is not a JV game for WO-S?

any info available?

3ABASEBALL.COM’S TOP 20 (March 16) 1.   Robinson 16-0 2.   Lubbock Estacado 12-5 3.   Pleasant Grove 13-2 4.   Jasper 13-2 5.   Prosper 14-0 6.   West 12-3 7.   Bridge City 9-3-1 8.   Giddings 10-2 9.   Orangefield 9-2 10. Andrews 11-3 11. Argyle 10-3 12. Celina 9-2 13. Robstown 7-6 14. La Grange 10-0 15. Carthage 7-6 16. Sweeny 9-2 17. Princeton 10-5 18. Bullard 11-4 19. Sinton 8-7 20. Lufkin Hudson 7-6-1 COMMENTS    ??

Way to go Emalee & Lauren!  ;D

A question for Pedro from Jasper.  I saw where Jasper lost to Vidor Pirates 13-1 and I was wondering who both Jasper and Vidor pitched?

I have seen Matt Hicks pitch for years; he is much better than last season.  It will take one amazing team to beat him in District.  BC has two All State contenders in Hicks and Robertson, plus two more steady Seniors in Mulholland & Rhoades. One Junior and the rest are tough-but-young Sophomores!  It is kind of special when I watch BC at times with their "Backbone" being Catcher-Soph; Pitcher Soph or Freshman; 2nd base Soph & Center F. Soph.......and those young folks have logged a lot of time together against substantial teams-- getting ready for a tough District run!  I have never seen a stronger "backbone" of young folks on a 3A team. Don't count out Orangefield--that once-in-decade-star-alignment, stack of good players might have got bopped around by Cameron Yoe and Lumberton this weekend; but, that might have been what it takes to get them to focus.  They are a strong opponent poised for all in 21-3A to tackle.  lol

BC game "timed out" out in the 5th inning, 5-2.....F. Zock looked good on the mound and Freshman closer Hayden Guidry will be a hauss as the years go by; he really impressed folks over at the Nederland game when he show good maturity on the mound: for such a young age. The Cameron Yoe people that drove all the way down here were really nice people--glad they took the time to schedule a weekend of games that far away.

Sounds like Buna is trying to solidify their teamwork for a deep post District run! Congrats.

Matt Menard...he proved it to me both offensively & defensively at the Nederland Tourney...a superior showing.

Wow, I am amazed BC held in there as long as they did....Pitching Freshman and Sophomores against the likes of Nederland and Westbrook.  They were down to #5 6,7,8s in the Pitching pool.  Even JVs from last year; up and Pitching for the first time against such excellent competition.  I think second place was just fine in this stiff outting. Tourneys are great; however, they do not denote what will happen when the #1s & #2s are pitching in District play a little later.

That was an amazing display of cleverness by Joe Robertson and Matt Hicks--they pulled an ole trick I had not seen since the late fifties! The triple play was nifty too; Matt Hicks is fast and when he saw what all was happening he took off from third to home and beat the runner there to take in a scorcher from Catcher Matt Menard who beat the semi-lame Ned. runner and tagged the runner going to first.  He then had the present-of-mind to wheel and hit Hicks who was a step or two ahead of the runner--whereby the tag was made just ahead of home plate. Wow three outs that contributed largely to the winning of the game This was the first triple play I have ever seen in a HS hardball game!  Congrats to all involved.  Also congrats to Freshman Pitcher Hayden Guidry who went about half the game giving up only one hit to the stout Bulldogs... Sorry, it was Hicks.....

Actually its amazing to give up four HRs early on; and then lose by only one point to anybody  :) Hicks will keep them close enough to allow fair-batting to win the District.  I believe that this tall Soph. left-hander Mitch Hubbard will be able to win some games in the later bracket play. If Guidry and Zoch are "on" they can be of great help when the time comes in Bracket play.  Don't ever count out the batting--the Srs. are braced by a bunch of Sophomores that have good batting skills.

BC hones their skills against some potent teams.....I believe this again gives them the edge this season.

I think I would put Robertson at the top of the list having watch him get a whole string of base hits over at the Lumberton Tourney--if my memory serves me correctly, he only had one- at bats -that did not result in a base hit!

I was very impressed with Mitch Hubbard(Soph.) and Guidry the Freshman for BC...Pitching looks sound for the future.  That Soph., #11 Smith at 2nd base plays like a seasoned performer; both offense and defense.

The first-of-the-year scrimmage--if you count the runs across the plate--ended 8-3 Bridge City.  Have no idea how this encounter will come out; however, I hope BC batting gets a shot at trying to hit Bellows. One thing for certain, it is better for BC and Ned to train against each other because they are both well disciplined and have skilled youth.