We’re going to break down the rankings rationale into two parts this week because there was a lot of movement this week. We’ll start with 8u-10u. No changes in the top teams in these age groups, although as detailed below, that may soon be changing in the 8u age group. 9u #1 Park Sharon Nationals and 10u #1 Canes NC – Gilchrist continue to appear like the dominate teams in their respective age groups. Check out our rationale for where we are ranking teams and let us know if you disagree.
8u
We’ve left West Raleigh at #1 for now based on their impressive fall campaign, however we’ve made the decision to start dropping inactive teams, so this will be changing in upcoming weeks until West Raleigh starts their travel ball campaign after their recreation season is over. The Carolina Threshers appear the likely successor at #2 currently with a 28-1 overall record including wins over current #4 Greenville Athletics (x4), current #5 Dirtbags Black (x2), current #7 Youngsville Phantoms (x4), and Dirtbags East (x2) who remain in consideration for a top 10 spot. The Lake Norman Vipers remain at #3 this week as they sit at 7-0 this spring and 31-3 overall. We’ve kept Greenville Athletics at #4 now, but we aren’t exactly sure this is the right fit. They had a tough stretch to end their fall during which they went 5-6, but they started the spring better with wins over #5 Dirtbags Black and #6 Carolina Stingers. They haven’t been too active of late, having last played in early March so we expect their upcoming results will help dictate a more accurate spot in the rankings for them.
Dirtbags Black has had an up and down spring, given their lofty standards. They’re 18-9 overall, with 3 losses coming at the 9u level (as well as 3 wins at the 9u level). They boast a win over #1 West Raleigh from the fall, as well as other quality wins over the Greenville Athletics and the Carolina Stingers. We have the Stingers at #6 this week. They are 7-3 this spring with a win over Dirtbags Black and their only losses against Dirtbags Black (x2) and Greenville Athletics. The Youngsville Phantoms made their first appearance in our top 10 this week at #7 after the championship performance last weekend at the USSSA Beast of the BoE Super NIT. During their tournament run, they scored two wins over previous #8 South Charlotte Cardinals, and a win over previous #4 East Rowan in the finals. East Rowan dropped from #4 to #8 with their loss against the Phantoms. The Carolina Vandals and the Carolina Young Guns stayed put at #9 and #10, respectively, this week. The Vandals are 23-6 overall including a win this spring over the South Charlotte Cardinals, while the Young Guns are 14-3 this spring, but haven’t faced the same level of competition as some of the top teams in the 8u age group.
9u
The Park Sharon Nationals continue to play like the top 9u team in the state of North Carolina, scoring a tournament win at the BoE this past weekend, during which they outscored opponents 54-8 in 5 games. The win at the BoE moved Park Sharon to 17-1-1 this spring, and 38-4-1 overall as a 9u team. We’ve moved SBA Canes – Simmons up to #2 in our rankings this week. This was done for a combination of reasons. First, the Canes have produced an 11-3 record this spring with wins over former #2 and current #8 Dirtbags Black, #13 Piedmont Panthers, #14 Union County Crush – Walker, and #19 Carolina Blue Mizuno. In addition, they have achieved semifinal appearances at the USSSA Atlanta Spring Super NIT and the BoE Super NIT. Their only losses have come against Park Sharon Nationals, new #7 Carolina Arsenal, and Force Baseball Academy – Griffen (GA) who is currently ranked 10th in USSSA’s national power rankings. In short, they’ve earned it. Secondly, teams previously in front of them have stumbled. The Canes defeated previous #2 Dirtbags Black at the BoE this past weekend.
Previous #3 West Raleigh Blue will not see action for at least another month or two. Previous #4 Greenville Athletics – Scott has not been particularly active and doesn’t boast the same overall quality of resume as the Canes, and previous #5 Five Star Carolina – Hilton just hasn’t been active enough this spring as of yet to warrant a place above the Canes. The Carolina Titans remain at #6 for now, while we moved the Carolina Arsenal all the way from 18th to 7th. The Arsenal are 34-12-1 as a 9u team and just made the finals of the BoE Super NIT where they lost to the Park Sharon. Along the way, they defeated SBA Canes – Simmons, #12 Carolina Red Sox – Jones, and tied the 52-2-1 Team 24 Gamecocks – Ashley (SC). We dropped Dirtbags Black to #8 for now with their loss to SBA. SW Colts, who stand at 22-9, remained at #9 this week as they continue to dominate arguably lesser competition than the teams ranked above them. Mount Holly Lightning and Lake Norman Thunder moved up 3 spots each from 13th to 10th and 14th to 11th, respectively, with the losses of some teams in front of them. Carolina Red Sox – Jones hasn’t yet found their footing this spring and we’ve moved them down to #12. They are 1-6 this spring, but have 4 losses to 10u competition, a loss to the Carolina Arsenal, and a loss to Park Sharon, as well as a win over #16 NCDB Rivercats. The Piedmont Panthers moved down from #8 to #13 as they moved to 4-3 this spring (27-4 overall) with an 0-2 showing at the USSSA BoE. The Union County Crush – Walker moved up 1 spot with NCDB moving down to #16 after their 0-2 weekend at the BoE. The Crush also went 0-2 at the BoE but faced #1 Park Sharon and #2 SBA Canes – Simmons in their two games, so its difficult to penalize them too much for those losses. Coach’s Box Broncos and Smash Baseball both moved up (15th and 17th) after an idle weekend. Smash continues to perform well after a slow start to their spring. Dirtbags East and Carolina Blue Mizuno both make their first appearances in our top 20. The Dirtbags are 9-3 this spring while Carolina Blue is 8-3 with wins over Carolina Arsenal and the Piedmont Panthers.
10u
There were not as many changes in the 10u rankings this week because the 10u majors division was nearly completely rained out at the BoE. Canes NC – Gilchrist remains #1 in the 10u rankings this week. We posted this in the comments section of our BoE recap, but wanted to highlight it here as well. The Canes are 10-0 this spring, won the USSSA Atlanta Spring Super NIT, and have outscored opponents a combined 114-11. They have 4 shut outs and 5 no-hitters in 10 games, and haven’t given up more than 3 hits or 4 runs in any game this spring. SBA Canes – Marconi remains #2. They’ve played a lot of 11u this spring, but still hold the head-to-head victory over the Canes – Gilchrist from the fall. The Port City Rebels was unable to get in a game at the BoE and remains #3. Rawlings Stars stayed put at #4, while the Alamance Patriots moved up to #5 with some losses from teams in front of them. They are 7-0 this spring, but haven’t played near the same level of competition as the teams in front of them so we’ll be interested to watch them this spring as they start to see some of the better teams in their area. The Belmont Bandits moved up to #6 this week after an idle weekend and sit at 13-1 against 10u teams this spring with their only loss coming against #8 Carolina Havoc. The Havoc are an interesting case study as they are 6-4 this spring, and have won their last 4 including wins over the Belmont Bandits and #7 East Rowan.
Dirtbags Platinum dropped from #5 to #9 this week with their loss to East Rowan at the BoE. They are 10-4 this spring (29-10-1 overall) with respectable losses against the Port City Rebels, #12 Carolina Thunder (x2), and East Rowan, but just haven’t found their consistent game yet. Mission Vipers Gold dropped two spots to #8 this week. The Vipers were very highly ranked in our end-of-fall rankings, but appear to have had some significant roster turnover from fall to spring so we’ll continue to watch them closely this spring. Dirtbags East dropped from 6th to 11th after an 0-2 showing at the Triple Crown Sports Capital Classic. The Carolina Thunder were down two spots to #12 this week as some teams below them had some big wins over the weekend. Dirtbags Black held essentially stable, down 1 spot to 13th for the same reason. Rock Solid Red moved up 1 spot to 14th, as did the Richmond Rockies (15th), and the Wendell Knights (16th). Aces – Edwards moved up two spots to 17th with some losses in front of them. The NCDB Rivercats dropped from 14th to 18th after a 2-2 weekend this past weekend. They continue to be an enigma, with a 4-4 record this spring with losses to Dirtbags East (x2) and 30-2 Charleston Revolution (SC) (x2). We added GRIT – Koonin at #19 this week after their win over #20 Youngsville Heat at the BoE moved them to 6-2 this spring, including a win over the Carolina Havoc in addition to their win over the Heat. The Heat moved to #20 this week. They are 9-3 this spring, and 28-11 overall, but have lost 3 of their last 4. FV Wildcats moved out of the rankings this week, but this is largely due to inactivity. As their number of games increases, we’ll get a better handle on where they belong in the rankings.