California's wild chase for No. 1, Kentucky baseball and a New Jersey freshman phenom have emerged as stories to watch this spring.
Staff Report
MaxPreps.com
Each week MaxPreps.com’s experts square off to tackle high school sports’ toughest questions. With the spring season hitting full stride, the Round Table debates which teams, players or states have done the best job of hoarding headlines as the 2007-2008 year comes to a close.
What is the best high school sports storyline this spring?
Kevin Askeland, Senior Writer
Trying to figure out which is the best high school baseball team in California has been one of the more interesting stories of the spring season. Each time a team moved into position to take over the mantle as the state's best, it promptly lost. Long Beach Wilson started the season as the No. 1 team in the country, according to Baseball America, and lost its second game of the season. Valley Christian, Poway, Aptos, Crespi and Orange Lutheran have all had impressive outings and asserted themselves as the state's best, only to lose soon thereafter. Orange Lutheran currently holds the ranking as the top team in the state by the recently released MaxPreps rankings, but the Lancers will have to finish a tough Trinity League schedule in order to maintain that ranking.
Dave Krider, Senior Writer
Kentucky high school baseball is on the rise. Lexington Catholic’s Nick Maronde, Lexington Christian’s Robbie Ross and Paducah Heath’s Daniel Webb were tabbed as three of the 25 high school players nationally in the preseason. Louisville’s Pleasure Ridge Park has beaten teams from Florida, Indiana and Ohio en route to a No. 33 national rankings by MaxPreps. Is the influence of an improving University of Kentucky baseball program – under the direction of 2006 national coach of the year John Cohen – leading the way?
Steve Montoya, Senior Video Producer
No April Fools Joke here...It's a huge deal when someone hits for the cycle in baseball, as it should be. Hitting for a single, double, triple and a home run in one game is amazing. But Andrew Blackwell out-did that, hitting four home runs in one game as his squad, the Brevard (N.C.) Blue Devils, beat Pisgah 16-7 back on April 1. Listen to this game, Blackwell hit a solo home run, a two-run bomb, a three-run shot and a grand slam. I don't need to say much more, but he also had 10 RBI. That's the real-deal cycle. His four home runs and 10 RBI are both one shy of Shawn Gallagher's five-home run, 11-RBI game back in 1995. Montoya, out.
Steve Spiewak, Football Editor
Has there been a bigger spring story than the shot put performance of 6-foot-4, 265-pound Nick Vena? The Morristown, N.J., native already holds the freshman indoor shot put record. Then last weekend at the Penn Relays – the country’s oldest and largest track and field event – he broke his own national outdoor record by ¾ of an inch. His throw was the ninth best since 1961, and it was good enough to land Vena the Athlete of the Meet award, which previously had never been given to a freshman. Simply put, he was the most dominant performer at an event filled with the nation's best athletes.
Mitch Stephens, Senior Writer
You guys can take your traditional baseball/softball/track and field storylines and store them deep into your respective hard drives. The most compelling story of the spring is whether the boys lacrosse team from Gilman (Baltimore, Md.) can run the table and go unbeaten. They play in the Murderer’s Row of all leagues, the MIAA, that currently sports five of the top 15 teams in the country. No league in any sport in the country can match that. And if the top-ranked Greyhounds (15-0) somehow get through without a defeat they’ll be just the fourth MIAA team ever to so, which would qualify them as possibly the best high school lacrosse team ever assembled. Considering the game has been traced back to the 15th century and was played days-at-a-time on mile-long fields by Native Americans to settle inter-tribal disputes – yes I too read Wikipedia – that would be some scoop, carry and score.
