Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Punxy, West A. tabbed

A month after failing to land any teams in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's high school top 30, Pennsylvania had four teams named by the newspaper as best in state.

According to the newspaper the top teams to beat are in Class AAA. Defending state champion Punxsutawney and defending WPIAL champion West Allegheny lead the field. Both teams garnered the same recognition a year ago. The ironic twist to this scenario is that if both win their respective districts, they square off in the PIAA first round. Last June the Chucks took a thrilling 3-2 win in eight innings after the previously unbeaten Indians watched a 2-0 lead evaporate in the top of the seventh. Punxy then stormed to 7-0 and 14-3 wins to reach the state final, where it beat Marple-Newtown, 5-4.

Listed under the 'also' category are a pair of Quad-A schools that also met in the PIAA tournament last June. Eventual state champion Seneca Valley returns almost its entire lineup (see last month's post about top players) and the team the Raiders beat to advance to the title game, State College, is also listed as one of the best. SV downed the Little Lions, 8-3, in the PIAA semifinals.

All four teams were listed by CBN last February.

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