5A Coaches Poll - Kaboom

MWL fans have to be proud that unranked North Eugene crushed #1 Corvallis in Corvallis. Another MWL winner, Thurston, was ranked number eight and beat number six Lebanon 7-3. Hopefully, Springfield will not undo the MWL success by losing to unranked Madison at PK Park tonight.

The first full round of playoff games provides ammo for every baseball coach to tell his players to "Ignore the polls. Games are won on the field". Let's take a look:

Unranked Crater beat #11 South Albany in a subround game.
Crater beat #12 Cleveland 12-0 in the first full round.
Unranked Klamath Union beat 7th ranked Wilsonville.
Unranked North Eugene beat #1 Corvallis 13-2.
Almost (#13) unranked West Albany beat 3rd ranked Pendleton.

That means half of the quarterfinalists are unranked or nearly unranked. What's with the coach's poll?
Well, I can't imagine a coach having the time to check out teams statewide or hearing about key injuries or a pitcher who just hasn't had it the last half of the year.
Media polls used to be better predictors than coaches polls, especially early in the season. Reporters had a pretty good network around the state and would pick up info from each other. But with the cutbacks in staff at all newspapers, that doesn't happen much anymore.
The questionable 5A poll probably lends support to a Power Ranking System and seeding for playoffs. Fortunately, at the 5A level, there weren't too many matchups where a team played another team that was closely ranked in the polls. #8 Thurston versus #6 Lebanon was one of those games. Lebanon players will probably always wonder why they couldn't have been matched up with an unranked team, although 2010 wasn't a good year to play the unranked.

At the 6A level, things were a little different. Six of the top 10 teams will be in the quarterfinals (Elite Eight). Lincoln, ranked #11, is the 7th team in the playoffs. Unranked South Medford is the final quarterfinalist, having won two games over unranked teams. Unlike the 5A level, 6A did have some match ups between teams closely ranked. #2 Lake Oswego versus #3 North Medford being one of those games. Seeding using Power Rankings would have prevented the #2 versus #3 matchup and unranked South Medford would not have advanced to the quarterfinals without playing a ranked team.

Quick Notes:
The Midwestern league can advance three teams to the quarterfinals for the first time ever if Springfield beats Madison tonight (Wednesday).

North Eugene can advance to the semifinals for the first time since 1998 with a win over Klamath Union in Klamath Falls Friday. BRRRR!

North Eugene and Springfield are on the same side of the bracket.....

North Eugene pulled off a miracle getting their game in last Friday. It had rained most of the day and was raining solidly when I showed up at 4:30. The rains slowed to a sprinkle by 5:00. The North players rolled back the tarp and the sprinkles turned to a light mist and the field was mowed and dry. I think that the Dalles-Wahtonka players were ready to call it an evening, stay overnight, and play at PK park on Saturday. Those thoughts apparently didn't go out the window when the umps called "Play Ball" at 5:05. The sun even poked it's smiley face out now and again.

If you have friends who are interested in softball, I started a few pages for MWL softball. Just has this year's league and playoff results, all stars and some playoff history so far. http://www.mwathletics.com/softball/softball_index.htm


Photos prices slashed:
Only two people ordered photos this year -- even as good and as inexpensive as they are :) I've already left some DVD's of photos with some of the teams, but I've also lowered the prices of the photos to a little above cost. If you saw some photos of your favorite player that you were interested in, you may want to check out the prices.