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We continue our Region previews with a look at 5a Region D. Region D is geographically massive, the Commonwealth District is strongly represented with five schools, but then the rest of the Region is spread all over Virginia.

This will make for an interesting postseason for this group. All twelve schools will make the Region D tournament and have a shot to advance to the State Tournament, regardless of how their season goes until late May. For the sake of organizing the Region, it has been divided into two halves, a North and South. The North features Potomac and the five Commonwealth District schools, the South features all of the other schools. Each side of the tournament bracket will be seeded using power points and then the tournament will be played until there are two teams left in the North and South. At that point they are re-seeded to play the semifinals. 

The Region itself features a handful of teams that have made deep postseason runs in recent years. Halifax County was the 5a State Runners up in 2017, losing in 14 innings to Briar Woods. Potomac and Mountain View made the State Tournament in 2016 as well, with Mountain View finishing as the 2016 State Runner-up. Harrisonburg joins the Region as the Blue Streaks move up from 4a to 5a.

 

Top Prospects in the Region

Name	School	Class	Position	Commitment
Andrew Harlow	Halifax County	2019	RHP	Radford
Nolan Johnson	Mountain View	2018	2B
Clay Lloyd	Halifax County	2018	C
Brody Mack	Potomac	2019	OF/LHP
Joshua Menders	Mountain View	2018	SS
Andrew Neff	Mountain View	2019	SS
Carter Plunkett	Patrick Henry	2019	RHP
Scott Reid	Albemarle	2018	RHP
Jose Rocha	Harrisonburg	2019	SS
Grayson Sims	North Stafford	2018	C/3B	Mars Hill
Michael Tolson	Stafford	2019	RHP/OF	Old Dominion
Chris Trissler	Stafford	2018	C
Keenan Williams	Orange County	2019	C
Christian Worley	Halifax County	2020	RHP

 

2018 Region D

Commonwealth	Other Districts
Brooke Point	Albemarle
Massaponax	Halifax County
Mountain View	Harrisonburg
North Stafford	Orange County
Stafford	Patrick Henry (Roanoke)
	Potomac
	William Fleming

*Italicized teams played in a 2017 5a Region tournament
**Harrisonburg played in the 4a West Region in 2017

 

Teams to Watch

Halifax County
The Comets were the 5a North Runners-up and 5a State Runners-up in 2017 and lost 2017 PBR VA/DC Player of the Year Andrew Abbott (Virginia) to graduation. Despite losing such a talented arm, Halifax should be among the strongest teams in the Region again with the return of the bulk of their lineup and their young arms. Senior Carlton Redd is back after spending most of 2017 as the number two, look for juniors Andrew Harlow (Radford) and Alex Lowery to contribute more innings as well as sophomore Christian Worley. Senior catcher Clay Lloyd will anchor the middle of the lineup again and help manage a staff that has the potential to be dominant.

Mountain View
The Wildcats are two years removed from being 5a State Runners-up and will be hurt by graduation again with the loss of lefty Justin Pearson (William & Mary). Mountain View should be strong up the middle with the return of its double play combination in seniors Josh Menders and Nolan Johnson. Look for junior Andrew Neff to potentially play a role as another bat with some athleticism.

Orange County
Orange lost top arm Brad Hanner (Patrick Henry CC) and power bat Trevon Smith to graduation off of their 2017 Region team. The Fighting Hornets do still have some talent as they look to retool for a Region run around junior catcher Keenan Williams and junior third baseman and pitcher Canon Davies. 

Potomac
The Panthers will play the season in the Cardinal District before moving onto the 5a Region C tournament. The Panthers were a win away from making their second straight State Tournament bid in 2017 and will miss Evan Antonellis (Bryant & Stratton) and Michael Buchino (Lenoir CC) who have graduated. Potomac does have an interesting 2019 arm in righthander Julian Cumba to go with All-Region two-way talent Brody Mack. Senior infielder Brandon Cleveland had a strong junior year and will slide over to shortstop in 2018.

Stafford
The Indians had an outstanding 2017 regular season before getting upset early in Conference play and then falling in the first round of the 5a North Region tournament. Graduation will gash Stafford as they lost pitchers Braydon Floyd (Charleston WV), David Lambertson (Mary Washington), and Charlie Tortorici (St. Andrew's Presbyterian). The Indians also lost the left side of their infield with the departures of Darnell Lardge (Old Dominion) and Tannor Sullivan (VCU). Stafford does still have some dynamic position player talent for 2018 in senior catcher Chris Trissler and junior outfielder and pitcher Michael Tolson (Old Dominion).