Class AAAA will go through L-L ... again

Unless something unforeseen happens over the next two weeks, when the District 3 Class AAAA trophy is awarded May 28, it's likely to go to a Lancaster-Lebanon team.

Since the PIAA implemented a fourth class in baseball for the 2005 season, the L-L has run roughshod over District 3. The only year the league didn't capture district gold was the first and the runner-up that year, Penn Manor, merely won the state championship after falling to Lower Dauphin, 5-3, in the final.

This year doesn't appear to be any different. Warwick, the defending champion, is the top seed. L-L members Manheim Twp., Penn Manor and Hempfield are seeded second through fourth, respectively. While it's true that seeds don't always hold, especially in baseball, the history is too strong to expect anything other than a solid showing from the L-L.

In fact, two of the last four years has seen a 3-AAAA final four involving three L-L teams but there has never been an all L-L final four.

It appears that Hempfield has the toughest road of the L-L top seeds to the semifinals. The Black Knights will likely need to oust Mechanicsburg, a team that has won nine straight and 12 of its last 13, in the first round. The Wildcats (15-5) average seven runs per game and haven't lost since April 17.

A win there sends Hempfield to the quarterfinals opposite the winner of a mini Mid-Penn tournament. The winner of Friday's Cumberland Valley vs. Cedar Cliff game will meet Chambersburg in the first round. Whoever comes out of that bracket potentially faces Hempfield in the quarterfinals.

Any of those three teams can give Hempfield trouble might be the district's sole hope in keeping the 3-AAAA field from becoming a strictly L-L dance.