Unlike some of the other age groups, the 12u age group is a very top-heavy age group with several teams having separated themselves from the rest of the age group. Notably, one of the top teams in this age group from this past Spring, Evoshield Canes NC – Harland, was not in action this fall. That allowed several teams to separate themselves a bit from the rest of the age group. In particular, East Rowan, Minion, and Legends Baseball appear to be the top teams in this age group, and East Rowan ended up our #1 after their performance at the Top Gun Winter World Series.
East Rowan went 16-2 this fall including a 6-0 weekend at the Top Gun Winter World Series including a win over #2 Minion and Team Dirty South Bats Venom (VA), who are perhaps the best 12u team in the state of Virginia. They also went 3-0 against #5 Five Star Carolina – Shelton, 2-1 against #15 WM9 Signature, and had a win over #10 Sandhills Heat. They also went 1-1 against #18 SBA Canes. Minion finished #2 in our fall rankings after posting a 30-4 record this season and winning the 12u Majors division at the USSSA Beast of the East (BoE). Their loss to East Rowan was their only loss to a team from North Carolina this fall. They edged out Legends Baseball 9-8 in the finals of the BoE, which is what separates those two in our rankings currently, and went 2-0 against #4 Park Sharon Nationals, 2-0 against #7 Carolina Chaos, and wins against #11 Carolina Vipers Blue and #18 SBA Canes. Legends Baseball finished #3 in our rankings this fall after posting a 22-3 record this fall. They went 1-1 against Team Dirty South Bats Venom (VA), and had a win against #4 Park Sharon Nationals, two wins over #15 WM9 Signature, two wins over #17 Carolina Thunder, and a win over #20 Rock Solid Red. The Park Sharon Nationals finished #4 in our 12u top 20 after going 17-5 this fall with four of their five losses coming against top 7 teams and their other loss in a 9-8 game against Team Dirty South Bats Venom (VA). Needless to say, Park Sharon played some real competition this fall. They did have wins over #15 WM9 Signature and #7 Carolina Chaos to highlight their fall season. Five Star Carolina – Shelton earned the #5 spot in our final fall rankings. They went 14-3 this fall including a win over Team Dirty South Bats Venom (VA) and #15 WM9 Signature. 2 of their 3 losses came at the hands of #1 East Rowan.
Golden Spikes finished #6 in our rankings after going 22-3 this fall predominately in USSSA play. They are a difficult team to fully assess as they have not played near the same competition level as many of the other teams in our top 20, despite their outstanding record. They only lost two games this fall to other 12u teams, including one loss against #13 Venom Stars. The Carolina Chaos finished #7 this fall with a 22-6 record. The Chaos boast wins against the Park Sharon Nationals and Carolina Vipers Blue this fall. SBA LKN Carolina Cobras earned our #8 ranking after going 13-4 playing essentially all 1-day events this fall. Because of their Sunday-only schedule, they did not play the same level of competition as some of the teams above them in rankings, and it will be interesting to watch the Cobras compete this Spring to see where they actually fall in amongst the best teams in the state of North Carolina. Majestic Greensboro finished #9 in our rankings after going 16-3 this fall. They finished 2-2 against WM9 Signature and scored wins over #12 Carolina Rattlers and #17 Carolina Thunder. They did have one loss against 11u #5 Five Star Carolina – Neyra which set them back a bit in our rankings. Rounding out our top 10 was the Sandhills Heat. The Heat finished 16-2 this fall highlighted by a 4-0 weekend and a win at the Top Gun Winter National Championships that included a win over an excellent Team 24 Gamecocks – Brown (SC) team in the finals. They also went 1-1 against #12 Carolina Rattlers this fall.
The Carolina Vipers Blue finished #11 in our rankings after a 17-8 fall campaign. Their season was highlighted by two wins over #18 SBA Canes and a win over Team24 Gamecocks – Brown (SC). The Carolina Rattlers earned the #12 spot in our rankings. The Rattlers went 19-4 this weekend including a 6-0 weekend and a tournament win at the Top Gun D2 Winter World Series. They also notched wins over #10 Sandhills Heat and #16 NSA Snipers this fall. We ranked the Venom Stars #13 in our final rankings. This is another team where the most appropriate ranking is a bit unclear. They were 8-1 this fall, so they played considerably less games than most other teams in the top 20, but did have a 1-1 record against #6 Golden Spikes. In the end, much like the Golden Spikes, more games against better competition will help offer some clarity here. The Sanford Cobras finished #14 in our rankings after an up and down fall culminated in a 18-10 record. They did have 3 wins against #20 Rock Solid Red to their credit this fall. WM9 Signature finished #15 in our rankings after posting a 23-13 record this fall. This is another difficult to team to rank, but for an entirely different reason as the Spikes or Venom Stars. To their credit, WM9 played perhaps the most competitive schedule among 12u teams this fall, but their results against the best teams were a mixed bag. They were 1-2 against #1 East Rowan, 0-2 against #3 Legends Baseball, 0-1 against #4 Park Sharon Nationals, and 1-2 against #5 Five Star Carolina – Shelton, however they did win the Perfect Game Super 25 NC Qualifier this fall. They should be commended for playing 9 games against top 5 teams, however they were 2-7 in those games. In addition to those two wins over top 5 teams, they also had wins over #9 Majestic Greensboro, #11 Carolina Vipers Blue, and #20 Rock Solid Red.
The NSA Snipers finished the fall #16 in our rankings. The Snipers finished 12-3 this fall, although they did not notch any victories over top 20 teams this fall. The Carolina Thunder earned our #17 ranking after posting a 15-8 record this fall. They logged wins over #14 Sanford Cobras and #20 Rock Solid Red and finished runner-up in the AAA Winter World Series to highlight their fall season. The SBA Canes finished #18 in our rankings this fall with a 20-10 record. They went 1-1 against #1 East Rowan, 2-2 against #11 Carolina Vipers Blue, and also had a win against #15 WM9 Signature playing exclusively USSSA tournaments this fall. We awarded the #19 spot to Black Sails after they posted a 13-2 record this fall. This is another team that is hard to fully gauge as their competition level wasn’t as good as many other teams in the top 20, but they posted an excellent record and scored wins over good Green Sox (SC) and Team 24 Gamecocks – Brown (SC) teams. Rounding out our top 20 was Rock Solid Red. Although the posted only a 12-11 record, they did win the AAU AAA Winter World Series that included two wins over #17 Carolina Thunder and overall went 3-1 against the Thunder this fall. We’d like to see Rock Solid perform a bit more consistently against other top 20 competition before moving them up in the rankings.
The 12u age division appears to have 3 teams (East Rowan, Minion, and Legends) who have separated themselves from the pack. In addition, a fourth team (Evoshield Canes NC – Harland) should be knocking on the door to compete with the Big 3 come Spring. To the credit of many of the top teams in this age group, there were lots of match-ups among the top teams and it turned out to be a very competitive fall season.