Regional Week

Here are my picks to regional baseball, softball and soccer. Track regionals are on Friday, and I'll give you a few names to watch.

6A Baseball - Campus

-Campus is the surprise team of the year. They're in the running because of pitching - David Ormiston and Jonathan Murray, both headed for Kansas jucos. I'm going to take Wichita North in this regional, though. Matt Applegate and Tyler Grimes are still bitter about missing state last year. They could be the two best players in the area, combining the ability to hit and pitch.

6A Baseball - Goddard

-Goddard should have absolutely no problems getting by Southeast and Derby or Heights. Goddard had no problem getting to state last spring, either, but faltered in the first round as the No. 1 seed. They're hungry to do better, and they're outrageously talented. With doubleheader sweeps over Wichita North and Maize, they could win it all. One note on the sweep of North: neither Applegate nor Grimes threw.

6A Baseball - Maize

-After their 10-1 trouncing of Wichita Northwest on Friday last week to end the regular season, Maize is heavily favored to return to state after missing out last year. Nick Cocking, Tyler Zimmerman, Jake Marasco, Ryan Hege - bats are not missing. Garrett Gould and Kurtis Schuyler - they've got the pitching. However, they got swept by Goddard. I still have them as contenders.

4A Baseball - El Dorado 

-This region is stacked. Andover Central, with star pitcher Ben French, is the favorite with a record of 19-1. But a host of teams await them after their first-round game today against 3-17 Circle. Mulvane (11-9) faltered down the stretch after a fast start, El Dorado (13-7) won their league with strong fundamentals, Andover (15-5) hung with it behind the bat of Bret Lentz, and Douglass (12-4) had a strong year in the Central Plains (can they hang with AVCTL teams?). With their pitching staff, Andover Central is a state contender.

3A Baseball - Wichita Independent

-Independent ((20-0) finally broke through in the Central Plains League, after playing second fiddle to Trinity Academy the past couple years. This is a fundamentally-sound baseball team which benefited from Trinity's down year. They should have no problems getting to state, but watch out for Trinity (9-9) pulling a couple upsets if they can find a pitcher they couldn't find during the regular season.

6A Softball 

-Goddard (18-2) and Wichita Heights (18-2) should be locks for state, unless Derby (9-11) is able to pull an upset. Maize (17-3) swept Wichita Northwest (16-4) last Friday to end the regular season; the two should meet again in the regional final on Thursday. I've got Maize.

4A Softball

-Wow. The Douglass regional is so strong. Five of eight teams are eight games or more over .500: Andover Central (16-4), Clearwater (16-4), Mulvane (14-6), Rose Hill (14-6), Augusta (15-5). Nikki Armagost is a dominant pitcher for Central. Augusta sophomore catcher Caitlin Ray has two grand slams this season, and is on Division I prospect radar already. This tournament is up for grabs. In the El Dorado regional, pitcher Karly Schmelzer has led Andale-Garden Plain to an 18-2 record. Nickerson (16-2) could contend, but Schmelzer will pitch every game and she's incredible.

3A Softball

-Will the story come full circle? Can Independent (18-0), a program that didn't win a game in 2003 and 2004, win the the state title in coach Corey Lyon's fourth season? They placed fourth with a 17-4 record last spring.

6A Soccer

-Maize (16-0) did not allow a goal the entire regular season. No team from the area has ever won a girls state soccer title.

5-1A Soccer

-Andover (16-0) has prolific scoring power behind Kortney Clifton (KU signee). She has well over 200 goals for her career. The question is not whether they can win their regional; can they beat Kapaun, which is traditionally the deeper team?

Let's do track later in the week.