Some late night math

The sign heading into town on Route 322 proudly boasts Hershey as, 'The Sweetest Place on Earth.' That may be true, but Memorial Field in Hershey was certainly one of the craziest places on earth Friday during the preliminary round of the District 3 playoffs.

Let's take a peek inside the numbers from the 3-AAAA doubleheader played in one of the nicer high school baseball venues in the district, if not the state.

In the opener, Mechanicsburg beat Red Lion, 11-6, before Cedar Cliff took out Cumberland Valley, 14-6. The two games combined for a time of 4 hours, 56 minutes. The first game lasted exactly 2 hours, 30 minutes. Keep in mind that in both cases, the home team did not bat in the bottom of the seventh, which kept the combined time under five hours.

All in all there were 37 runs, 53 hits (CV had the lowest hit total with 11; Mechanicsburg the highest with 16), 32 runners left on base (Red Lion and CV stranded 11 and 10, respectively; Cedar Cliff stranded three), nine pitchers used, 28 strikeouts, 14 walks and 580 pitches thrown.

Despite all that, both games were relatively well played. There were zero back-to-back walks and before CV committed three errors over the final two innings, the four teams combined for only two errors. Still, five errors over 14 innings and a 2-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio made for anything but lousy baseball Friday.

Next stop for yours truly is Wenger Field in Fredericksburg on Monday for another doubleheader involving area teams. Northern meets Hershey in a 3-AAA first round matchup at 4 p.m. followed by Mechanicsburg's tussle with Hempfield in the 3-AAAA ranks at approximately 6:30.

Projections Update
Not a good preliminary round in terms of my brackets Friday. In 3-AAAA, I lost Daniel Boone, Red Lion, Ephrata and Governor Mifflin for a 2-4 mark. Good news is all the teams who I lost Friday were not picked to advance past the first round.

Such isn't the case in 3-AAA. I only lost two teams but they were both picked to win Monday. Oley Valley, the Berks County runner-up, was slotted to finish fourth and qualify for the PIAA field. Palmyra had other ideas in a 12-3 win. Susquenita couldn't find any offense before the seventh in losing, 5-3, to No. 26 Eastern York. I had the Blackhawks as district quarterfinalists.

Since there were Internet problems on the Carlisle Pike the night I made my selections, here are my picks in each class (list includes only teams projected to qualify for PIAA playoffs; district seeds in parenthesis):

AAAA
1. Penn Manor (3)
2. Warwick (1)
3. Manheim Twp. (2)

AAA
1. Lampeter-Strasburg (2)
2. Muhlenberg (4)
3. Northern (9)
4. Oley Valley (11)

AA
1. Brandywine Heights (1)
2. Kutztown (3)

A
1. Camp Hill (1)
2. High Point Baptist (2)