This past weekend saw some big upsets as well as some strong performances across multiple age groups. We’ve focused this week’s rationale on the major movers. Please refer back to the previous rationale posts here and here for more details about why some of the teams who haven’t moved much are ranked where they are. Overall, we had #1’s go down in the 10u and 13u age groups, but elected not to move them because of their overall impressive seasons thus far. Several new teams hit the tops 20s this week, so read on to find out why we ranked teams the way we did.
8u
The top 7 remained stable this past weekend, while #8 Carolina Vandals had an impressive weekend in the USSSA event in Greensboro to solidify their spot at #8. The Carolina Stingers had a 2-2 weekend this past weekend, losing to an excellent VA Squires team twice, and dropped from 9th to 13th this week. The Young Guns also dropped back from 10th to 15th as they just haven’t fared as well against the best competition this spring. That allowed the Reidsville Luckies, East Rowan 7u, South Charlotte Cardinals, and Greenville Athletics to each move up two spots.
9u
The top 3 remained the same same this week, while SBA Canes – Pitts moved up from 5th to 4th after a 3-1 weekend playing up in the 10u age group in Charlotte. Five Star Carolina – Hilton dropped from 7th to 10th after a 13-run defeat against new #7 Smash Baseball. Smash continues to be one of the hottest teams in the state across all age groups. The Lake Norman Thunder dropped from 8th to 14th after a 2-1 weekend with a loss against unranked OTK Saints. The Haywood Havoc continue to move up our rankings, going from unranked at the beginning of the spring to #11 this week. They are currently 41-11 overall as a 9u team (12-5 this spring) and went 4-0 this past weekend including a win over #12 Piedmont Panthers, who dropped from 10th. Carolina Blue Mizuno, who are currently 14-5 this spring, moved up from 13th to 9th after a 3-1 performance at the PerfectGame Invitational this past weekend, including a win over the East Cobb Astros, who are currently ranked 2nd in USSSA’s national power rankings. Union County Crush – Walker dropped from the rankings this week after a 2-2 weekend, and GBI Express moved back into the rankings at #19 after a 4-0 weekend including a win over #20 NCDB Rivercats.
10u
5 of the top 10 teams in the 10u age group were in action this past weekend at the USSSA South Carolina Super NIT, with some going head-to-head, which allowed for some changes in the rankings. Despite their losses, we kept Canes Baseball NC – Gilchrist and SBA Canes – Marconi at #1 and 2, respectively. We moved Dirtbags Platinum up to #3 this week. They are 16-5 this spring, topped previous #4 (current #4 Port City Rebels 11-3) last weekend, and have won 6 of their last 7 games. We moved Port City to #4 this week after a semifinal showing at the Super NIT this past weekend. They are 1-2 against Dirtbags Platinum this spring, which is what separates these two currently. Dirtbags East is up to #5 this week as they are now 20-6 this spring (41-13-1 overall), while Dirtbags Black is up to #6 after a 4-0 weekend including a win over #9 Rawlings Stars moved them to 14-3-1 this spring. We dropped the Alamance Patriots from 4th to 8th this week. They are 11-0 this spring, but just haven’t played the same level of competition as the rest of the top 10 as evidenced by the fact they have not played a current top 20 team this spring. The Carolina Thunder dropped from 14th to 16th after a loss to 9u #17 Carolina Red Sox – Jones this past weekend. The NCDB Rivercats are back in our rankings at #17 this week after a 4-0 weekend this past weekend. Mission Vipers Black and Gold each dropped a spot to 19th and 20th after disappointing showings this past weekend at the USSSA Super NIT.
11u
We kept the top 5 the same in the 11u age group this week. With Big Game 2025 going 1-2 against two NC teams at the USSSA Super NIT, we dropped them from 6th to 8th. SBA Canes – Erwin also dropped from 8th to 10th after a 2-1 weekend with a loss to #19 Athlete’s Lab Crushers. That allowed the LKN Attack, who are 16-1 in Top Gun play this spring, and 32-11 overall to move up to 6th. Canes Baseball NC – Simpson are up to 12th this week after solid, but not spectacular 2-2 finish at the USSSA Super NIT has them at 8-5 this spring. North Wake Fungo is down to 14th this week. We had missed their 0-4 weekend playing 12u last week and factored that in this week. The Carolina Athletics are back in our rankings this week at #18 after a 4-1 showing at the USSSA Super NIT including wins over Canes – Simpson and Big Game 2025. Dirtbags Elite made their first appearance in the rankings at #20 after a 4-0 weekend including a win over previous #20 Dirtbags East moved them to 8-0 this spring.
12u
There was not as much movement in the 12u age group as many of the top 20 had the weekend off. We dropped East Rowan from #3 to #7 after back-to-back 2-2 weekends including two losses to new #4 Five Star Carolina – Shelton. The Park Sharon Nationals are up to #3 after a 4-0-1 weekend and a defeat of #2 Minion the week prior. SBA Canes – Mendez is up to #10 from #12 after going 2-1 at the USSSA Super NIT. We dropped Rock Solid Red from 16th to 19th after going 0-3 at the USSSA Super NIT. Canes Baseball NC – Charlotte also dropped to #20 after going 0-3 in Lexington last weekend.
13u
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the 13u season thus far occurred last weekend when #4 NCDB Rivercats defeated #1 Canes Baseball NC – Gallaher. For the weekend, the two top 5 teams were 1-1 against another, and we kept Canes – Gallaher at #1 because of their overall impressive resume. We did not move the Rivercats above #2 Canes Baseball NC – Haire or #3 Knights Prime because we felt both Canes – Haire and Knights Prime had better overall resumes as 12u teams, and Knights Prime has a head-to-head win against the Rivercats this spring. Nevertheless, these 3 are tightly packed at 2-3-4. We dropped Dirtbags – Smith from #7 to #9 after two losses this past weekend, including one against Carolina Havoc – Clonch, who moved up from 11th to 10th. Outside of these changes, many of the top 20 was unchanged as most were not in action.