COMMENTARY — Sometimes there’s a problem and absolutely nothing can be done about it.
If you have a pair of pants and they’re too tight, you can drop a few pounds and make them fit better. But if they’re too short, what are you going to do, lose some height?
And so it is with the baseball playoffs in the 3A classification. We’re just past halfway in the region season and it’s clear that there are six very good teams in Region 9 (Hurricane, the sixth-place team, is improved, but not quite playoff-worthy). I truly believe any of the top six teams could go to the state tournament and still be playing on Championship Saturday. And yet, only four of the six will be in the playoffs early next month and that’s a shame.
I’m not being egocentric or biased. Just look at the state tournament results of the past few years. Last year, Grantsville won it, but Cedar and Desert Hills were playing on the last day. In 2013, champion Snow Canyon and Desert Hills were the last two teams standing. In 2012, Snow Canyon won it all. How about 2011? That’s when Dixie, Pine View and Snow Canyon played up a classification and the results were still huge for Region 9 as Desert Hills and Canyon View made it to the last day in 3A and Snow Canyon made it to the title game in 4A. In 2010, CV and DH were both there until the end.
Get the idea? It’s not just one team from the region that goes to state and dominates. It’s all of the Region 9 playoff teams.
Last season, top-seeded Desert Hills won its four-team home “pod” by a combined 20-4 score. On the road, No. 2 Cedar dropped a second-round game to Juan Diego, but got its revenge by winning several elimination games and making it to the last day of the tourney. The third-seeded Falcons also lost early on the road, but then came back and won several elimination games. Fourth-seeded Pine View went to the Payson pod and whipped the Lions and Stansbury. It took region-mate Cedar to finally eliminate the Panthers.
And then there was Snow Canyon and Dixie, both of which missed the 3A playoffs. The Warriors were 6-6 in Region 9 and Dixie was 4-8, but it’s clear they were better than most of the rest of the state’s playoff-qualifiers, especially when we take a glance at how those teams did in preseason against those very same teams.
But that was last year. What about 2015? Snow Canyon, which is 3-5 in region and in sixth place right now, might miss the playoffs. The Warriors were 8-0 in the preseason and beat up teams like Bountiful, Mt. Crest and Lehi, all bigger schools that are doing well in their 4A and 5A regions. Dixie and Canyon View, the two teams tied for fourth place in the region, beat up some good teams in the preseason as well. Dixie whipped Stansbury, Box Elder and Bear River by a combined score of 26-7. Those three teams are a combined 20-3 in their respective region games.
Clearly, Region 9 is the class of 3A. But only four of the region’s teams will make the playoffs.
Right now it looks like Desert Hills and Cedar are in very good shape. The Thunder, 5-1, still have six games left, but if they can win half of those, 8-4 would get them into the playoffs. The Redmen have just four games left and are 5-3. Winning just their two remaining home games would give them a 7-5 record and likely a playoff berth.
Pine View also has a leg up heading into this week’s games with a 4-2 record. But PV has six games left — more opportunities to win, but also more opportunities to lose ground.
The aforementioned Flyers and Falcons are flirting with the danger zone. Canyon View, 4-4, has just four games left to improve their playoff likelihood. The first two are this week against Desert Hills.
Dixie, 3-3, has a bigger opportunity to improve its stock with six games remaining. The Flyers play Pine View this week and Snow Canyon next week. It may come down to a do-or-die series the last week of the season between Dixie and Canyon View.
As for the 3-5 Warriors, qualifying for the playoffs won’t be easy. SC has a region bye this week, then finishes with two-game sets against Dixie and Hurricane. Even if SC gets three out of four, that would only put the Warriors at 6-6, the same record they had last season when they were forced to watch the playoffs from the sidelines.
Who knows what will happen in the next few weeks, but two topnotch teams are going to get left out of the playoffs once again. And just like those pair of pants that only go down to mid-shin, that just doesn’t fit right.
Here’s this week’s schedule:
BASEBALL
Tuesday
Hurricane at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Canyon View at Desert Hills, 7 p.m.
Pine View at Dixie, 7 p.m. — SportsRadio ESPN 106.1 FM
Friday
Desert Hills at Canyon View, 4 p.m.
Cedar at Hurricane, 7 p.m.
Dixie at Pine View, 7 p.m. — SportsRadio ESPN 106.1 FM
Saturday (non-region)
Snow Canyon at Skyline, 11 a.m.
SOFTBALL
Tuesday
Desert Hills at Hurricane, 4 p.m.
Dixie at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Pine View at Snow Canyon, 4 p.m.
Friday
Canyon View at Dixie, 4 p.m.
Cedar at Snow Canyon, 4 p.m.
Pine View at Desert Hills, 4 p.m.
SOCCER
Tuesday
Hurricane at Cedar, 4 p.m.
Canyon View at Desert Hills, 7 p.m.
Pine View at Dixie, 7 p.m.
Thursday
Hurricane at Dixie, 7 p.m.
Friday
Cedar at Canyon View, 4 p.m.
Snow Canyon at Pine View, 7 p.m
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @oldschoolag
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