Extras and Tops

I had made my top ten using, what I think was, the seeds that the Morris County Coaches would have seeded if they had voted. The Daily Record covers Sussex, so Sandy includes Pope John & Sparta. It looks like Sean looked at most recent head’s up matches most importantly, Morris Hills 10 running Parsippany & Parsippany beating Mendham (which did not occur on when I ranked).

I think what we all need to realize is that this pack of teams from 1 through 13 or 14 is very competitive. The string of Morris Hills beating Parsippany; Parsippany beating Mendham, Mendham beating Morristown, Morristown beating Knolls, Knolls beating Whippany, Whippany beating Morris Hills, Morris Hills beating Par Hills, Par Hills beating Mendham, Mendham beat West Morris; West Morris beat Knolls; and so on.

Let’s consider a quality win. Obviously all wins are positive and this is high school ball so we know that consistent play 100% of the time, every inning, every at bat is a very difficult task. So, you will, at times have to just pick a team that you think will win the next time they play. But do you even, or should you even consider a quality loss?

What exactly is a quality loss in softball? 1-0 to Caldwell? I consider a quality loss a game where the teams could have won. When look at games like Chatham losing to Morristown, all of Montville’s losses, Mendham’s 3-2 loss to West Essex. These are losses that are not going to drop you in my voting process. Heck, even a 8-0 loss or something like that happens. We all have bad games, so when I vote, I look for consistency.

Once this nice weather comes in, we’ll have plenty more material to sort out and hopefully all these teams will make our lives of sorting out a top 10 even more difficult. The best thing that can happen is that the high school kids prove us wrong ON THE FIELD.

Speaking of … How about Par Hills and their 5-3 victory over Mendham Monday?

Even more fun … 4 extra inning games … Baseball from Tuesday – Welcome, Jason Izsa, to the coaches with a TIE on their records. Not an easy task, but there are a couple of us around. Mt. Olive cause the most fireworks, winning is a walk off 12^th inning homerun. Parsippany won on a single in the 8^th over Chatham. Mendham and their Guyer-ball antics were at it again. I heard there’s a new line Vegas, call the Guyer. You get to bet if the total runs in a game is going over 20 or not. After 4 innings, I was counting my winnings only to lose a bundle yesterday on the Mendham game! (* just joking *) But add Mendham’s 8^th inning 10-9 victory over Par Hills to that list. By the way Par Hills 1-4, all losses by a total of 4 runs. Jefferson goes 9 innings and wins on the road!

I’ll be taking today off from coverage. We’ll be back tomorrow at Randolph for Randolph-West Morris Lacrosse.