With the las weekend of the regular season this weekend, teams will be looking to get the details down for the postseason. What better way that to do it in a format that isn’t necessarily a tournament, but you still get to play some good competition?
That is what we have in the East/West Showdown hosted by Amber-Pocasset High school.
Teams from around the state will descend on AmPo’s field to play teams that they will not see the following week in Districts. This provides matchups that we wouldn’t probably see otherwise during the season.
Pairings
Thursday’s Matchups
AmPo (13-7), A #7 vs Verden (12-9), A
Yes AmPo has lost 7 games, but you could argue that the Panthers have played the toughest schedule. Their losses are to Ft Cobb-Broxton (3x), Rattan, Calumet (2x), Okarche, and Sterling. They own wins over Rattan, Byng, Ripley, Navajo, and Arapaho-Butler.
Verden is a team that their record indicates: good, but not great nor bad. They don’t have any horrible losses on their resume, but do own a couple of wins over Union City
AmPo (13-7), A #7 vs Rock Creek (6-14), A
Rock Creek has played a tough schedule losing to Rattan (2x), Silo, Latta, Tupelo (2x), Navajo, Kiowa, Calera (2x), Asher, and Wright city. To be honest, most of these games weren’t close score wise. They did have a nice win over B #5 Caney last week
Friday’s Matchups
Glencoe (14-7), A vs Rock Creek (6-14), A
Glencoe has a nice record, but to be honest their schedule hasn’t been the toughest. Most of their wins have come against unranked Class A teams and several Class B teams. Their best win may be a win over Union City who has been in and out of the OSSAA top 20 or an early season win over Mulhall-Orlando.
Rock Creek (6-14), A vs Verden (12-9), A
AmPo (13-7), A #7 vs Glencoe (14-7), A
Dale (12-6), A #6 vs Ft Cobb-Broxton (19-3), B #1
This game is probably considered the marquee matchup of the weekend.
Dale’s record doesn’t jump out as an “outstanding” record, but if you take Oktaha off their schedule, Dale is 12-3. The Pirates beat FCB in their tournament the first weekend of the season (3-2) and has wins against Tupelo, Latta (2x), Ripley, Wright City, and Okarche just this past Monday.
Ft Cobb-Broxton is the class of Class B (along with Calumet) and is one of the best teams in state regardless of class. They have wins over Okarche, AmPo (3x), and Sterling (3x). They may be playing their best baseball so far as they’ve won 8 straight games.
Preston (18-2), A #9 vs Arapaho-Butler (14-8), A #14
Preston won their first 11 games of the season including an extra inning win at Dale before losing a 1 run game vs a good Latta team. Since then they’ve won 6 of their last 7 including wins over Class B #4 Stuart and #6 Kiowa.
Arapaho-Butler has been the most Jekyll & Hyde team in Oklahoma this season. They started 4-3 before winning their tournament with wins over Wright City and Sterling. A-B then lost to an rebuilding Canute team in the Labor Day Tournament before rolling off 4 straight wins including a win over Dale to finish 4th in that tournament.
The pas 2 weeks saw them lose to Canute again before they won the Sentinel Tournament over the weekend. A-B followed that up by getting run ruled by Leedey.
I think it is safe to say any result of a game that Arapaho-Butler plays shouldn’t be surprising.
Saturday’s Pairings
AmPo (13-7), A #7 vs Preston (18-2), A #9
Navajo (16-7), A #16 vs Rock Creek (6-14), A
Navajo has been a solid team this season as they’ve beaten the teams they should beat. The problem is they haven’t beaten any team who is on their level or above.
Their 7 losses include losses to Calera, Sentinel, Wright City, Ft Cobb-Broxton, AmPo (2x), and Calumet.
Their best wins are probably Leedey and Stonewall.
These 2 teams played each other in the Tupelo Tournament with Navajo winning 12-5.
Navajo (16-7), A #16 vs Dale (12-6), A #6
Sterling (13-4), A #11 vs Dale (12-6), A #6
Sterling is an interesting case in Class A. If you take away their losses to Ft Cobb-Broxton, they’d only have 1 loss (2-1 to Arapaho-Butler).
I would say their #11 ranking too low as they’ve beaten Sentinel (#18), Dale (#6), and AmPo (#7) all since Labor Day weekend.
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