8u
We increased the rankings from 10 to 15 teams in 8u this week as we feel we are starting to get a better handle on this age group. The Carolina Threshers remain at #1 after a 4-0 weekend improved their record to 36-1 overall. They’ve won two 1-run games in the past two weeks, but they just keeping winning. The Lake Norman Vipers and Dirtbags stayed at #2 and #3, respectively. The Youngsville Phantoms dropped from 4th to 6th after a 1-run loss to #5 Dirtbags East and a 1-run loss to the NCDB Rivercats. This allowed East Rowan to move up to 4th. Dirtbags East moved up from 9th to 5th with a win over Youngsville. It’s hard to fault them too much for two losses this past weekend to the Threshers. 3 of their 6 losses this spring have come against the Threshers. The Summerfield Stars jumped from 10th to 7th after wins over the #10 Young Guns and #8 Carolina Vandals this past weekend. The Stingers came in at 9th and the Reidsville Luckies made their first appearance in our rankings this spring, coming in at 11th after a win over Summerfield this past weekend. East Rowan 7u came in at #12 in our rankings this week. They are 20-4 in 8u play and already boast two wins over Reidsville. South Charlotte Cardinals are 13th after a great fall but a slow start to their spring. Greenville Athletics and Spartans – Allen round out our top 15 at #14 and #14, respectively.
9u
Park Sharon Nationals and SBA Canes – Simmons stayed at 1st and 2nd this week as SBA looks to keep pace with the clear #1 in 9u in North Carolina. Greenville Athletics – Scott and Carolina Titans remained at 3rd and 4th, while we moved Dirtbags Black from 5th to 6th after a 2-2 weekend playing D3 10u. SBA Canes – Pitts (formerly Carolina Arsenal) moved up 1 spot to 5th. Smash Baseball moved up from 13th to 9th this week. Since starting 2-4, Smash has won 14 games in a row with 4 tournament titles and wins over #19 NCDB Rivercats, and previously ranked GBI Express and Coastal Cyclones. SW Colts dropped from 8th to 11th as some teams who appear to have played some better competition were moved up. East Rowan – Smith jumped into our rankings this week at #15. They look to be improved from the fall and went 4-0 this past weekend with a win over #17 Mount Holly Lightning. Mount Holly dropped from 12th to 17th this week after back-to-back 2-2 weekends.
10u
Not much change at the top this week in 10u, but #1 Canes Baseball NC – Gilchrist, #2 SBA Canes – Marconi, #3 Port City Rebels, #5 Dirtbags Platinum, #10 Carolina Havoc, and #18 Mission Vipers Black will all be playing at the Lexington SC USSSA Super NIT this weekend. #4 Alamance Patriots had a 4-0 weekend this past weekend including a 1-run win over #17 Richmond Rockies. They remain undefeated this spring, however their competition has been far below that of the rest of the top 10 so it remains to be seen if this is the most accurate ranking for the Patriots. We continue to watch how they perform as they hopefully match up with some of the better teams in their area. We moved Dirtbags Platinum up to #5 after a 4-0 weekend this past weekend with two wins over #16 FV Wildcats and wins over recently ranked NCDB Rivercats and Sandhills Stingrays. Dirtbags East was up to 6th after a 4-0 weekend with wins over #9 Dirtbags Black, #20 Youngsville Heat, and recently ranked Wendell Knights. East Rowan moved down from 5th to 8th after a 2-2 weekend in Georgia. GRIT – Koonin is now up to 13th after some losses by teams previously in front of them. Aces – Edwards is back in the rankings at 15th and the Mission Vipers Black made their first appearance in the rankings at 18th after their defeat of #19 Mission Vipers Gold this past weekend.
11u
1st-11th all remained the same this week as their was not much shuffling or action amongst these teams. Notably, Five Star Carolina – Neyra continues to perform well this spring and could be a candidate to move up soon. The OTK Saints moved up from 15th to 12th after a semifinal appearance at the Triple Crown event in Georgia this past weekend. Canes Baseball NC – Simpson continues to be an enigma, but they did score a tournament win in Charlotte this past weekend including wins over Mission Vipers Black, Canes – Charlotte, and the Carolina Athletics. The remainder of the 11u rankings were largely unchanged.
12u
We had an exceedingly tough decision to make this week in the 12u age group. Both Minion and Legends Baseball have been excellent this spring and this past fall. This past weekend, Legends had a 4-0 weekend including a win over #3 East Rowan, while Minion suffered went 0-2 to #12 SBA Canes – Mendez and #4 Park Sharon Nationals. Beyond that, however, Minion holds a 9-8 head-to-head victory over Legends from the fall, and won both the fall and spring USSSA Beast of the East Super NITs, which were perhaps the two best 12u fields in the state over the past year. In the end, we decided that couldn’t overlook two losses from our #1 team and moved Minion to #2 and Legends up to #1. East Rowan dropped to #3, however the battle between them and #4 Park Sharon is extremely close right now. Five Star Carolina – Shelton is now up to 5th as they’ve had a strong start to their spring. Majestic Greensboro is up to 7th after another tournament win this past weekend. We bumped Sandhills Heat up from 15th to 9th this week after their defeat of East Rowan this past weekend. SBA Canes – Mendez is up to 12th after their win over Minion this past weekend. SBA LKN Carolina Cobras fell from 11th to 16th after a 1-3 weekend. 5 Star LKN jumped into the rankings at #15 after a 3-1 weekend including wins over SBA LKN and the Venom Stars, as well as a win over 11u #1 Carolina Blue Sox. The NCDB Rivercats also made their first appearance in our rankings at #20 this week. They’ve played some excellent competition as a 12u team and sport wins over the Sandhills Heat, #14 Sanford Cobras, #16 Rock Solid Red (x2), and recently ranked Canes Baseball NC – Harland. We dropped Carolina Vipers Blue from the rankings as they have been inactive thus far this spring.
13u
Knights Prime suffered a defeat this past weekend at the hand of #13 Rawlings Prospects NC, so they dropped from 2nd to 3rd. Canes Baseball NC – Haire moved up to #2. NCDB Rivercats made a big statement this past weekend at the Impact Baseball 13u Spring Championship, going 3-1 with wins over #6 East Coast Clippers and #7 Dirtbags – Smith, and moved up from 8th to 5th. The Clippers dropped back to 6th from 4th and Dirtbags – Smith was up to 7th after scoring going 1-1 against NCDB this past weekend. Rawlings made their first appreance in the rankings after a 7-0 start this spring and a big win over Knights Prime. Outside of that, the 13u rankings were largely unchanged, but more and more teams area starting to get in action so things should start to heat up pretty quickly in the 13u age group.