There was lots of poor weather across the state this past weekend. This meant that while many of the top teams were in scheduled to be in action, not many games were played across the state. We did make some changes to the rankings, but this was not as busy of a week as usual. The upcoming Easter weekend is also a down weekend for activity, but things really pick up after that as events like the USSSA Beast of East Select 30 Super NIT (BoE) begin to take place.
8u
The top 4 stayed the same in the 8u rankings with West Raleigh Blue, the Carolina Threshers, the Lake Norman Vipers, and East Rowan holding steady this week. #5 Dirtbags Black suffered a one run loss to an excellent Carolina Stingers and we moved them down to 8th this week. They are 2-1 against the Stingers this spring. The Carolina Vandals, South Charlotte Cardinals, and Greenville Athletics all moved up one spot to 5th, 6th, and 7th, respectively. Spartans – Allen stayed at #9 and we moved the Stingers to #10, dropping the Summerfield Stars this week. The Stingers are 7-3 this spring including a win over #5 Dirtbags Black, and with two of their losses coming against the Dirtbags and their other loss coming to Greenville Athletics. The upcoming BoE will hopefully offer some clarity in the 8u age group with #4 East Rowan, #6 South Charlotte Cardinals, and other teams in consideration for top 10 spots such as the Youngsville Phantoms.
9u
The Park Sharon Nationals stayed at #1, Dirtbags Black at #2, West Raleigh Blue at #3, and Greenville Athletics – Scott at #4 this week. We made a tough decision this week at #5. The Carolina Titans have been locked in at #5 in our rankings for sometime. After an 18-1 fall, and a 5-0 start to the spring season, this does not seem unreasonable. And yet, at this point they only have one win against another ranked team (an 11-1 win over #11 NCDB Rivercats in the fall) and a 1-1 record against a very good Smash Baseball team. In short, they just haven’t played the same caliber of competition as many of the rest of our top 10. So despite their ridiculously good record, we’ve decided to drop them to 7th and move Five Star Carolina – Hilton to 5th and SBA Canes – Simmons to 6th. We should note here that Five Star had 4 wins over #9 Southwest Forsyth Colts, a win over #10 Carolina Red Sox – Jones, and a win over #18 Summerfield Stars this past fall. SBA Canes – Simmons has a 7-2 record this spring with their only losses coming against teams currently ranked 12th (Park Sharon Nationals) and 13th (Force Academy Baseball – Griffen) in USSSA’s 9u majors national power rankings. They also have a win over #8 Piedmont Panthers, and a semifinal appearance at the USSSA Atlanta Super NIT to justify their spot in the rankings currently. Carolina Red Sox – Jones is a bit a mystery at this point. They are 0-4 this spring, but have only played 10u competition so we haven’t felt compelled to change their ranking status much yet. That being said, without some wins it will be hard to continue to justify their spot in the rankings. We dropped GBI Express this week after and 0-2 weekend with losses to Smash Baseball and the NCDB Rivercats. Beyond this, the rest of the top 20 remained stable as most of the teams were inactive this past weekend. The BoE will go a long way to helping sort out the 9u top 20 as #1 Park Sharon Nationals, #2 Dirtbags Black, #6 SBA Canes – Simmons, #8 Piedmont Panthers, #10 Carolina Red Sox – Jones, #11 NCDB Rivercats, and #19 Carolina Arsenal all in the field. Other teams we considered this week included Dirtbags East, the LKN Hurricanes – Mann, and Smash Baseball, who has played outstanding baseball since some early season disappointments.
10u
This was the most active age group of the week with multiple top 20 teams in action this past weekend. Canes NC – Gilchrist is locked in the top spot, as we discussed last week. SBA Canes – Marconi look like the top contender to unseat them and stayed steady at #2 after an impressive performance playing 11u last weekend. Previous #3 Mission Vipers Gold took a big dive this week in the rankings after an 0-2 weekend this past weekend. The Vipers’ misstep allowed the Port City Rebels to slide up into the 3rd. Port City is 8-1 this spring, including wins over #5 Dirtbags Platinum, #14 Rock Solid Red, and #16 Youngsville Heat. The Rawlings Prospects NC moved up to #4, but have not been active this spring and will start to move down in our rankings without more activity. Dirtbags Platinum rebounded from two losses a few weeks ago to the Carolina Thunder and scored two wins this past weekend including a win over the Carolina Thunder. We moved them back up to #5 in our rankings this week. The Belmont Bandits are up to #7 in our rankings, after posting a 12-0 record against 10u competition this spring. The Alamance Patriots held steady at #9 and are another team who we will be closely following their results against better competition. We settled on the Mission Vipers Gold in the #10 spot. Coming off an impressive fall, they’re 2-2 this spring and will look to steady the ship as they head into the BoE in two weeks. East Rowan jumped from 19th to 11th after their wins over the Vipers and #19 Carolina Havoc this past weekend. Dirtbags Black dropped two spots after a 1-0-1 weekend. The NCDB Rivercats come in at #13 and are another team that is difficult to rank. The are 2-2 this spring, but in a scheduling anomaly have played Dirtbags East in 3 of their 4 games. As they play more games this spring, their ranking should sort itself out as well. We dropped Carolina Red Sox – Snyder from our rankings as they do not appear to be fielding a team this spring. Rock Solid Red, Richmond Rockies, and Youngsville Heat all moved up two spots with the Havoc dropping back after some early disappointing play this spring. Aces – Edwards is a newcomer to the top 20 this spring. They are currently ranked #17 and sport a 4-1 record in the early going this spring. They have two wins over #20 Carolina Havoc already this spring to support their position in the rankings. The FV Wildcats are back in the rankings at #18. This is a team that made it to the finals of the Top Gun Winter World Series this past fall, but hasn’t been very active yet this spring. They lost a close 7-6 game last weekend to Dirtbags East in the first game action this spring. At #19 we ranked the Carolina Havoc. As it stands right now, the Havoc are barely holding onto this spot. They’re 2-4 this spring, with two losses to Aces – Edwards and another loss to East Rowan, but this is coming off the heels of a 17-5 fall. It’s early in the season so hopefully they can turn things around. The Wendell Knights were dropped to 20th, as they have not yet been active this spring. The BoE in the 10u age group will be particularly competitive with #1 Canes NC – Gilchrist, #2 SBA Canes – Marconi, #3 Port City Rebels, #5 Dirtbags Platinum, #10 Mission Vipers Gold, #11 East Rowan, #12 Dirtbags Black, #14 Rock Solid Red, #16 Youngsville Heat, and #19 Carolina Havoc all in the field. Other teams we considered this week included the Sandhills Stingrays and West Raleigh Blue.
11u
SBA Canes – Ross remains in the #1 spot in our 11u rankings. They have two losses this spring at the 11u level, one against Kangaroo Court (FL) (26th in USSSA national power rankings) and one against the Meridian Panthers (GA) (24th in USSSA national power rankings), and are currently 8th nationally in USSSA’s national power rankings. Mission Vipers Gold are #2 this week and are 8-0 this spring including a win over #10 Big Game 2025. Canes NC – Hood remains at #3 and Canes NC – Simpson at #4. Neither of these teams have played yet this spring and we’ve had a difficult time deciding whether to keep them up in the rankings. They were both impressive in the fall, and we’ll look to their early results to help guide us on where they fit in the rankings. Five Star Carolina – Neyra remains at #5 this week. They’re 5-0 in the early going this spring. Cleveland Wildcats Elite is at #6 this week and are 4-0 thus far in early spring play. SBA Canes – Erwin remain at #7 this week and are a combined 26-9-2 between fall and spring seasons. #8 Carolina Blue Sox are 6-0 in the early spring, with wins over #12 LKN Attack and #14 Lake Norman Hurricanes. LKN Attack stayed at #12 this week, and we dropped the OTK Saints from #13 to #18 after they went 1-1 this past weekend with a loss to 10u #2 SBA Canes – Marconi. The Carolina Pilots, Lake Norman Hurricanes, Carolina Rams, Athlete’s Lab Carolina Crushers, and North Wake Fungo all moved up 1 spot with the Saints dropping. Rock Solid Red and Carolina Titans Blue stayed at 19th and 20th this week, respectively. The upcoming BoE should do a lot to sort some of these teams with #1 SBA Canes – Ross, #2 Mission Vipers Gold, #3 Canes NC – Hood, #7 SBA Canes – Erwin, #8 Carolina Blue Sox, #10 Big Game 2025, as well as quality teams in consideration for top 20 spots including the Vision Bandits, Dirtbags East, and the Carolina Athletics. Other teams we considered this week included Brunswick Core and the Dirt Devils who are off to an outstanding spring thus far.
12u
The vast majority of the 12u rankings remained stable this week. East Rowan, Minion, and Legends Baseball seem to be a step or two ahead of the rest of the age group in North Carolina currently. We’re still waiting for the vast majority of this age group to get back in action this spring, but with the BoE coming up on April 6th-8th we should see a fair number of these teams in action. Current teams scheduled to play at the BoE include #2 Minion, #3 Legends Baseball, #5 Park Sharon Nationals, #11 Carolina Rockies, #12 Sanford Cobras, #19 Carolina Chaos (AA/AAA), and #20 Carolina Prime 2024 (AA/AAA), in addition to several teams routinely in consideration for top 20 spots such as the Rawlings Prospects NC and Canes NC – Harland.
13u
The 13u age group remains the least active age group early in the spring, presumably because of school baseball/sports. As such, the top 16 teams remain unchanged this week. We did remove Dirtbags Black from the rankings as we learned they will not be in action this spring. We also moved the Walk Off Warriors up to 17th after a 3-0 weekend this past weekend and a 5-0 start to the spring. We added Bluechip Athletes into the rankings at #20 this week. They are 4-0 this spring and 17-5 overall in Top Gun play as a 13u team. As these teams begin spring play, we expect to see more changes on a weekly basis. Several top 20 teams will be in action at the BoE including #1 Canes NC – Gallaher, #3 Canes NC – Haire, #6 NCDB Rivercats, and #9 Carolina Havoc – Clonch.