Rankings Rationale 8u-10u 4/4/19

8u

We've continued to expand our 8u rankings this spring as more games get played. We're now up to 14 teams in our state-wide rankings, and 21 teams in our regional rankings. East Rowan has held onto the top spot in our 8u rankings since their title at the Top Gun Winter World Series in October 2018. West Raleigh was removed from the rankings as they are not actively playing travel baseball this spring. Dirtbags Black has moved up to the #2 spot and the Davidson Crush has moved up to #3, ahead of Spartans - Mullins, after their recent win over #1 East Rowan. The McDowell Titans have settled in at #5, with an impressive 23-1 record against what appears to be slightly lower competition than many of the other teams in the rankings. This upcoming weekend at the Beast of the East (BoE) will tell us a lot about them. The SBA Futures are a new addition to our rankings this spring at #6. They're 6-0 this spring, but don't yet have the quality wins of some of the teams above them. Again, we should learn a lot about the Futures this weekend. Dry Pond at #7 are in a similar position as the McDowell Titans, with their only losses coming against the Titans separating these teams. The BoE will help us figure out where many of these teams fall out in our rankings. Dirtbags East are another new team this spring and is off to an 11-1 start with wins over a handful of regionally ranked teams. We recently expanded the rankings to include #12 Carolina Spinners and #12 LBC Bulldogs. These two appear to be some of the best teams in the Charlotte Metro region, with the Spinners' 10-7 win earlier this spring over the Bulldogs being the only separator between these two. We plan to expand the 8u rankings to 20 teams throughout the spring season.

9u

The top 4 in our 9u rankings have remained unchanged since the end of the Fall 2018 season. We've moved Canes Baseball NC - Harris up from 7th to 5th this spring as they have posted a 10-2 record with wins over #11 Dirtbags East and numerous 10u teams. Dirtbags East has dropped from 5th to 11th this spring. They posted a 13-2 record this past fall, but are 4-5 this spring with two losses to Canes - Harris and two losses to #10 East Coast Elite. East Coast Elite has moved up from 15th to 10th this spring as they have posted a 6-0 record with two wins over Dirtbags East. NC Rogue has been another big mover this spring in our 9u rankings. They have moved from unranked at the end of the fall to 13th in our rankings as they have posted a 10-0 record this spring including a win over #14 Carolina Rockies. The LBC Lightning are another addition to our rankings this spring, coming in at #18 after posting a 9-3 record this far this spring, including two wins over South Carolina #8 Titans Baseball.

10u

The top 6 of our 10u age group has remained largely unchanged thus far this spring, outside of the removal from West Raleigh Blue from the rankings, and Carolina Blue moving ahead of the SBA Americans after they posted a head-to-head win over the Americans earlier this spring. Carolina Red Sox - Jones has moved up from #11 to #7 this spring after posting a 7-1 record thus far including wins over #12 Carolina Rockies Black (x2), #13 Union County Crush - Walker, and #16 Smash Baseball. Union County Crush - Walker has been new addition to the 10u rankings this spring. The Crush are 10-4 this spring, and have posted a win over Red Sox - Jones as well as having 3 1-run losses among their 4 losses. The Venom Stars are another new addition to our 10u rankings this spring coming in at #20 currently. They are 15-4-1 overall with a win over #19 Summerfield Stars.