SOUTH FORK 2A: Bottom 2 teams in standings won’t play in league tourneys

By CHRIS HOBBS

HobbsDailyReport.com

The South Fork 2A will drop its bottom two teams out of its high school baseball and softball tournaments next week in order to get them played.

Because there are conference games that spilled over to Monday – the regular seasons were scheduled to end on Friday – the teams involved in those games would potentially face a four-game week if they reached the tournament title games under a traditional eight-team bracket.

North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) rules say a team can play a fourth game in a week only if it is played on a Saturday, so conference athletic directors met to formulate a new plan.

They decided to drop the seventh- and eighth-place teams in the standings out of the tournaments and set up two-day tournaments with games on Tuesday at two sites and the championship games on Thursday.

Official brackets for both tournaments will not be available until early Tuesday morning.

All of the following information is via brackets HobbsDailyReport.com received on Friday night from an athletic director at a conference school (all tiebreaks are as worked out by HobbsDailyReport.com as well) and seeding for conference tournaments and the state playoffs are entirely different processes.

BASEBALL

The two teams that won’t play in the tournament are Maiden (5-15, 4-10) and Newton-Conover (1-19, 1-13).

There’s one league game left – Lake Norman Charter (9-11, 6-7) at Bandys (19-3, 10-3) on Monday at 7 p.m. at Bandys.

The seeds already in place are No. 1 North Lincoln, No. 2 Bandys and No. 3 Lincolnton and first-round games will be Tuesday at North Lincoln and Bandys.

After the other seeds play at 4 p.m. at those locations, the Knights and Trojans meet the winners at 7 p.m. in semifinals.

If Lake Norman Charter wins, it earns the No. 4 seed, leaving East Lincoln (10-12, 6-8) and West Lincoln (9-14, 6-8) tied for fifth place.

If Lake Norman Charter loses, it falls to 6-8 in conference games and ties East Lincoln and West Lincoln for fourth place.

Under NCHSAA tiebreaking, all three teams’ records would be compared against each other – West Lincoln 3-1, East Lincoln 2-2 and Lake Norman Charter 1-3. That would make Lake Norman Charter the No. 6 seed.

In a head-to-head comparison then of East Lincoln and West Lincoln for the No. 4 seed (they split) they would have the same record against teams above them and the comparative record that breaks the tie would be versus Lake Norman Charter (West Lincoln swept, becomes No. 4; East Lincoln split, becomes No. 5).

SOFTBALL

There are two games left to complete the regular season on Monday – Lake Norman Charter at Bandys, and Maiden finishing up a suspended game at Newton-Conover.

Lincolnton went 0-14 and finished eighth and will not advance to the tournament.

Lake Norman Charter (4-9) is currently in seventh place but Monday’s results could leave three teams — Lake Norman Charter, Bandys and Newton-Conover – tied for fifth place at 5-9 (if the Knights beat Bandys and Maiden wipes out an early 2-0 deficit to beat Newton-Conover).

If Bandys wins, Lake Norman Charter will remain in seventh place and not participate in the tournament.

If Bandys and Newton-Conover each win, tying at 6-8, Newton-Conover would be No. 5 and Bandys No. 6 because the Red Devils would be 1-1 against Maiden and the Trojans were swept by Maiden.

For Maiden, the No. 1 seed is on the line when it finishes up with Newton-Conover. A Maiden victory would make it No. 1 because it swept North Lincoln.

Since North Lincoln and Maiden are assured of finishing 1-2 in some fashion, the first round tournament games will be at those two locations on Tuesday (two games at each site).

Because tiebreakers for conference tournaments do not break the tie regarding state playoff bids, any game between Maiden and North Lincoln in the league event would determine the No. 1 seed into the state playoffs.

SOUTH FORK 2A BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

Tuesday’s first round

At North Lincoln

No. 1 N. Lincoln, bye

No. 5 vs. No. 4, 4 p.m.

No. 5-No. 4 winner vs. No. 1 N Lincoln, 7 pm.

At Bandys

No. 2 Bandys, bye

No. 6 vs. No. 3 Lincolnton, 4 p.m.

No. 6-No. 3 Lincolnton winner vs. No. 2 Bandys, 7 p.m.

Thursday’s championships at Legion Fairgrounds

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

SOUTH FORK 2A SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

Tuesday’s first round

At No. 1 seed (North Lincoln or Maiden)

No. 1 N. Lincoln or Maiden, bye

No. 5 vs. No. 4 W. Lincoln, 4 p.m.

No. 5-No. 4 W. Lincoln vs. No. 1, 7 pm.

At No. 2 seed (North Lincoln or Maiden)

No. 2 N. Lincoln or Maiden, bye

No. 6 vs. No. 3 E. Lincoln, 4 p.m.

No. 6-No. 3 E. Lincoln vs. No. 2 N. Lincoln or Maiden, 7 p.m.

Thursday’s championships, site TBA

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.