North Dakota Preps

Heart River beat Kindred and HCV.
Velva beat Thompson (and Northern Cass).
Ryan beat Thompson.
Des Lacs bear Kindred.

So, it certainly wouldn't be out-of-the-question to see a West team win an opening round game.

But, as has been said earlier, those games depended on the pitching matchups. I have no idea if those games used their top-line pitchers or not.

I think Heart River is a favorite in the first round. I'd give HCV a slight advantage, but would expect a good game, and Thompson should be favored, but it is not a slam dunk either. I'm still of the opinion that everyone is playing for second and would't be surprised if CC dominated the tourney, close games in regionals notwithstanding.

Flip wrote:http://www.ndhsaanow.com/brackets/softball/478/2019-ndhsaa-class-b-softball-state-tournament
Would it be shocking to see the East sweep the first day?

No. But yes.

Dakotastater wrote:I'm still of the opinion that everyone is playing for second and would't be surprised if CC dominated the tourney, close games in regionals notwithstanding.

I'm on this train too. CC is a pretty complete team and will be tough to beat. But we all know that the best team in the state doesn't always win, for whatever reason. If teams can keep it close, they have a shot at knocking them off. If they get down by a bunch (IMO 4 or so) it'll be a tough climb.

It's easy to pick a east side or west side when the only games watched are one side or the other.

After watching both east and west teams, I'm going with this.
1. Central cass
2. Heart River
3. Velva
4. DlB
5. Thompson
6-8. The rest.

Wouldnt surprise me if Heart River wins it all.
Velva could surprise someone with their 21 home runs as a team.
Anyone could beat each other if they happen to have a great game. It should be a fun tourney to watch.

https://www.inforum.com/sports/softball ... rth-Dakota

Nice article.

Suddenly the sweep by the east looks more probable. KR with a nice win over Heart River, 6-0. KR sure looked like the the better team.

Dakotastater wrote:Suddenly the sweep by the east looks more probable. KR with a nice win over Heart River, 6-0. KR sure looked like the the better team.

DLB/L&C held on after a late Thompson rally for a 6-3 win

CC should roll again in the second round. The other semi with KR playing their best ball of the year vs a good DLBLC team should be interesting. Hard to make a call.

Thompson doesn’t seem to play well in the tournament and HR should be favored.

Velva should beat BR.

Dakotastater wrote:CC should roll again in the second round. The other semi with KR playing their best ball of the year vs a good DLBLC team should be interesting. Hard to make a call.

Thompson doesn’t seem to play well in the tournament and HR should be favored.

Velva should beat BR.

I’m a dropped pop fly from being 0-4 on calls. For what it is worth, the east is now 5-1 versus the west in the tourney. Hope for good games tomorrow, the same old, same old as state champs again.

In the Central Cass-Hillsboro/CV game, I think it's fair to say that both teams scored 2 runs because of the wind. HCV got a homerun and triple (that later scored) on high fly balls that were right in the wind channel. Maybe the homerun may have dropped in for a hit, but the triple would have been a fairly routine catch. The final play of the game was also decided by the wind. On a normal day, that was a routine fly-ball. I don't know how BEK described it, but the radio announcer said it was a 'lazy' pop fly. I thought it was, too, when it left the bat. He also said that the center fielder was 'camped under it'.

I agreed with his description until I got a look at the video. The wind just kept pushing the fielder back and back. She never got her feet set, and she had to reach up and over to try and make the catch. Yes, you have to call it an error, but I wonder if even 50% of high school outfielders would have caught that one. You can't get a line on the ball because of the wind, it's a large ball that has to fit in a fairly small glove. It's not as easy as catching a baseball. In softball, if you don't get the ball right in the pocket or webbing, there's a good chance you aren't going to be able to squeeze your glove shut on it. I've seen many plays that looked like they were going to be a fine running catch, only to see the ball pop out.

In any case, it was the 2nd 'miracle' ending that CC has had lately. The game against Fargo North was almost as dramatic (although it was a fairly meaningless game).

I guess you can put Greta Gibson in that 50%.

Maybe I overestimated the difficulty on these fly balls. It was just as windy today, with plenty of of outfield fly balls -- but no miscues.

vikingman wrote:I guess you can put Greta Gibson in that 50%.

Maybe I overestimated the difficulty on these fly balls. It was just as windy today, with plenty of of outfield fly balls -- but no miscues.

Played some slowpitch in those winds last night...it was a game-changing wind. I think teams were prepared for the wind a little better today then the games I watched yesterday as the winds didn't change direction or speed that much; preparation is key.

Looking at some season-final stats for CC and one thing really jumped out-- Walks. Lexi Buhr walked just 7 batters in 68 innings. Overall, CC pitchers walked 26 batters for the entire season, while CC batters took 106 walks.

And, is there a place to see stats for all the games?

All-State team--

Why does class B have 17 members when A has 18? And it still seems like there's a requirement for east/west balance.

vikingman wrote:All-State team--

Why does class B have 17 members when A has 18? And it still seems like there's a requirement for east/west balance.

Maybe there was a tie in Class A and yes there tends to be a balance...you see that when the NDHSCA is involved in All-State selections (Ex. VB)

I ordered the DVD from BEK for the semi-final game--how annoying to have to sit through a 3-minute countdown before the start of the game, and a 1-minute countdown after each half-inning! Can't even use the 'Next' button to jump to the beginning of the next inning.