By Brandon Hall

Director of Scouting, PBR NC

 

The following events are mostly from memory as some of the records and information are hard to find.  It is admittedly skewed from the point of view of the writer, who played at Millbrook High school from 1992 – 1995. 

 

It is 1993 and I am a Sophomore at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, NC.  We have a solid team, but we are young.  Only a couple of seniors contribute and we are starting a lineup made up of a bunch of Juniors.  As the year rolls along, we got hot, winning the always competitive Cap-8 Conference with a 16-7 record, and 8-4 in the conference.  It was not the overall record, but the way the year ended and we thought we had a shot of making a run.

 

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) has the state brackets setup as a single elimination tournament.  Currently, 64 teams (at the 4A level) get into the post-season, with a loose seeding system.  The higher seeded team will host the lower seed.  Loser goes home.  In the game of baseball, a one game scenario can come down to a bounce of the ball or the arm on the mound.

 

The Run... 1993

The first round (32 teams), in 1993 saw Millbrook host Southern Wayne and a win for the good guys.  The second round we head to Cape Fear and win again.  Two wins into the tournament, and the 32 team field has been cut to 8 teams.  We are getting near exams, the end of the year and the crowds at our games are growing.  Millbrook beats Triton in the third round, setting up a huge obstacle in the Eastern Finals.

 

At this time, New Hanover High School is rolling, ranked No. 1 in the country and featuring a lineup that would eventually have four players selected in the top 5 rounds, including that year’s number seven overall selection Trot Nixon.  The Eastern Final that year, would be hosted by NC State, an environment that most high school players in 1993 had not experienced.

 

One game… One win… One time playing flawlessly over seven innings would set us up to play for the State Championship.  It is do-able.  We could match up with any team for a short time… even though we were young, we had talent, and we had players that had won, a lot, at various levels.  For one game, we could match up and beat the No. 1 team in the country.

 

Mistakes in the first inning, gave New Hanover an early lead.  They were throwing a sophomore that eventually set a state record for wins, consecutive wins, along with many others.  From innings two through five, we settled in and played better, forcing New Hanover into mistakes.  By the fifth, we are back in the game, within striking distance.

 

Earlier on that same day, the Boston Red Sox selected Trot Nixon in the first round.  That same day, New Hanover’s center fielder, Fletcher Bates, went in the 5^th round.  As we roll into the 6^th, Fletcher Bates put together a great at-bat, extending the AB by fouling off pitches, and eventually working a walk.  Behind him, Trot hit a ball over the left field wall, that may have it a building in the middle of State’s campus.  The game was put away.

 

At the end of the game, with some of our players finalizing their baseball careers, there was a since of accomplishment.  We hung toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the country for most of the day, eventually dropping a 9-3 decision.  We were not the better team, but we were returning a majority of our team in 1994.

 

We Want New Hanover

The 1994 Millbrook Wildcats were a juggernaut.  The regular season record of 21-1, including a 12-0 mark in a very good conference does not describe the distance between our roster and most of the teams we played.  Three college pitchers, a fourth pitcher that played college football, a first-baseman drafted and signed by the Reds, all three infielders played college baseball of football, the catcher played college football, and two of the outfielders played college football.  We were strong, fast, athletic, and we had depth.  I would go on to be the conference player of the year in 1995, but struggled to get innings in 1994, pitching behind three good arms.  Ranked as high as No. 2 in the country, we wanted New Hanover… We followed their progress… We wanted another crack at the team we felt we could unseat from the top.

 

The first round saw our 21-1, No. 2 ranked club face a team from Fayetteville with a 10-11 overall record.  They were throwing a knuckleball pitcher who averaged 11 walks per 7 innings.  Their team batting average was below .270.  With all of that, we knew it was a one and done scenario – lose and the season ends.  We did not take them lightly.  We threw one of our “guys” – he attacked and threw strikes.  We had a plan offensively and executed, hitting a bunch of balls off the barrel and creating quality AB after quality AB.  In the end, Fayetteville 71^st scratched 3 runs early, robbed two 3-run home runs and held on to win 3-2.  Now 21-2, the Millbrook Wildcats were done.

 

We played well, not great, but good enough to have won on most nights.  71^st played really well, as well as they had all year.  A team averaging 8 walks per 7 innings did not walk but two hitters.  A team that struggled throughout the year on defense, made every routine play and a couple of extraordinary plays.  In a longer series, the odds would have played out and Millbrook would  have moved on.  71^st won and they moved on to round two.

 

NCHSAA vs. Other States – Best Bracket Practices

Is the single game elimination the best practice to find our state champion in North Carolina?  It is an issue I have personally thought a lot about since 1994.  If it was a three game series, would we have advanced… would we have made it through the entire tournament for our shot at New Hanover again?  Other states, nearby do take a different approach to their post-season.

 

Just to our south, South Carolina works with four team pods, advancing one team to the next round, until a champion is reached.  It begins with 32 teams playing in district tournaments.  Double-elimination, four team tournaments advance one team to the regional tournaments.  Again, a double-elimination format, with four teams, advances one team to the state championship, which will be a best of three series. 

 

In this format, a bad game is penalized, but can be forgiven.  The drawback may be the number of teams in the post-season.  The NCAA plays a similar setup in its first round at the Division I level, with 64 teams.  For North Carolina to keep 64 teams, in a 4 team double elimination setup, teams would look at 4 rounds, probably with each being a week long and some teams being asked to play five games per week with an early loss.

 

A little further south, Georgia has a 32 team setup with a simple bracket, much like North Carolina’s.  The difference is every line of the bracket is a best of three series.  This again may promote the best team advancing and it would eliminate some of the upsets North Carolina brackets invite.  For North Carolina to keep the 64 team field, an extra week would be added to the Georgia format.

 

What is Best

The best format for North Carolina can be debated.  Areas of the state that have depth on their roster, and are equipped with several pitchers would thrive in deeper tournaments.  A best of three, or a double-elimination format, would eliminate some of the upsets and Cinderella runs that North Carolina has seen over the years. 

 

By keeping the single elimination format, it is easy to keep 64 teams in the post-season field.  More players with post-season experience is a good thing.  Will adjustments in the tournament format, eliminate the ability to keep 64 in the field? 

 

All in all, the North Carolina setup is fine.  However, as a disgruntled baseball player that still dreams of getting through the game vs. 71^st and completing our run to New Hanover in the Regional Final, I can’t help but think “what if”…

 

 

For your thoughts on the NCHSSA playoff format, you can CLICK HERE… Use the subject “State Playoff Format”.  PBR will look to add any insights or thoughts to the article.