Rankings Rationale 5/24/18

8u

No major changes at the top, with only the Lake Norman Vipers in action among the top 10. They went 4-0, and continue to impress but haven't yet done enough to supplant #1 Carolina Threshers or #2 Dirtbags Black. We dropped the South Charlotte Cardinals from 11th to 15th this week. They were 14-2 in the fall, but are 8-5 this spring and fell to Pineville this past weekend.

9u

The race for #1 has been interesting between the Park Sharon Nationals and SBA Canes - Simmons. Park Sharon has done nothing to lessen their grip on the top spot, but Canes - Simmons continues to play well enough to not lose ground on the Nationals. At 29-1-1 and 30-5, respectively, this spring, these two appear to have separated themselves a bit from the pack in the 9u age group, however the Nationals hold a 3-0 record against Canes - Simmons this spring. Dirtbags Black have been steady performers this spring, and their recent win at the Triple Crown Border Wars has helped boost them into the #3 spot. We're never really sure how best to interpret results when teams play up an age group and lose, but after a 2-2 performance this past weekend playing up in the 10u age group, we dropped SBA Canes - Pitts one spot to #4. We dropped Greenville Athletics - Scott from #7 to #10 as they just have not been very active this spring. East Rowan - Smith fell from #11 to #14 after they fell twice against the Lake Norman Thunder, who moved up from 15th to 13th. The NCDB Rivercats moved up from 18th to 16th after a 3-0 weekend.

10u

Much like the 9u age group, #1 Canes Baseball NC - Gilchrist and #2 SBA Canes - Marconi appear to have separated themselves a bit from the pack in the 10u age group. Similar to SBA Canes - Pitts in the 9u age group, we dropped Dirtbags Platinum from 3rd to 5th after going 0-2 playing 11u this past weekend. East Rowan moved up from 6th to 4th after a 4-0 weekend, including two wins over #20 Mission Vipers Gold and a win over a good Charleston Revolution (SC) squad. We dropped Dirtbags Black one spot to #6 after a 3-1 weekend with a loss to unranked Triple Crown Lookouts. The rest of the top 20 was largely intact with Mission Vipers Gold dropping two spots from 18th to 20th after two losses to East Rowan this past weekend.

After spending nearly 6 weeks at #2, SBA Canes - Ross returns to the top spot in the 11u rankings this week.
11u

The top spot in the 11u age group was our toughest decision of the week. The Carolina Blue Sox had been locked in our top spot since the April 11th edition of the rankings after they had scored a win over previous #1 SBA Canes - Ross on their way to a USSSA Beast of the East Super NIT tournament win. Since April 21, Canes - Ross has gone 16-0-1, including 3 wins over current top 15 teams this past Sunday. The Blue Sox have also been excellent, but fell 5-4 this past weekend to #5 LKN Attack. At this point, Canes - Ross is 44-13-1 as an 11u squad and 33-8-1 this spring with , while the Blue Sox are 30-9 as an 11u team, 20-3 this spring including a win over Canes - Ross. In the end, we feel that although their resumes are very similar and the Blue Sox hold a head-to-head victory over Canes - Ross in April, the overall level of competition has been slightly higher for Canes - Ross than for Blue Sox as they have traveled around the Southeast, played more games at the 12u level, and faced more top 10 and top 20 11u teams than the Blue Sox. This past weekend's USSSA event in Charlotte featured an excellent 11u age group with numerous match ups among top 20 teams. We moved Mission Vipers Gold down from 4th to 6th after a one-run loss against #14 SBA Canes - Erwin. Despite that win, Canes - Erwin was 1-3 for the weekend with losses against Mission Vipers Gold, #7 Canes Baseball NC - Simpson, and #10 Carolina Athletics, and fell from 8th to 14th. Canes - Simpson jumped from 10th to 7th after going 4-1 this past weekend with a loss to Canes - Ross in the finals. Team Ghost moved up from 13th to 11th after 3 wins against 12u competition this past weekend.

12u

Much like the 11u age group in the USSSA event in Charlotte, the 12u age group at the Top Gun event in Charleston, SC was loaded with 3 top 10 teams. In the end, however, the results were difficult to draw many definitive conclusions. #2 Minion went 2-0 in pool play with wins over #6 East Rowan and #12 SBA Canes - Mendez. However in bracket play, Minion dropped a 4-0 decision against to #7 Majestic Greensboro in the semifinals. Majestic subsequently fell 12-1 against East Rowan in the finals. Given these results, we kept Minion at #2 because of their impressive overall resume including a 26-5 record this spring and a 56-9 record overall as a 12u team. Majestic moved to 30-5-1 as a 12u club, but we felt it difficult to bump them in front of East Rowan after a 12-1 loss against the boys from East Rowan in the finals. We dropped Golden Spikes from 8th to 14th, despite their excellent overall record, as they just haven't been as active as others this spring and haven't faced nearly the same level of competition as the rest of the top 10.  Canes - Mendez dropped from 9th to 12th after a 2-2 weekend. The rest of the top 20 was largely unchanged.

13u

Unlike most of the other age groups, the 13u age group did not have a lot of action this past weekend, with most teams idle. #4 NCDB Rivercats did go 1-1 playing up in the 14u age group in the Tp Gun event in Fayetteville this past weekend. Other than that, there was not much action within the top 20 in the rankings that we are aware of, and thus no movement this week.