Madness engulfs 3-AAAA playoffs

Another year, another district baseball playoffs full of upsets.

Normally, we're writing about how wild and crazy the District 3 Class AAA field. But, after the first round, that bracket is pretty solid. The only two real surprises were No. 12 Hershey over No. 5 West York and No. 14 Greecastle-Antrim's win over third-seeded West Perry.

Shippensburg, No. 17, nearly turned the bracket on its head by beating top-seeded Lampeter-Strasburg, but the Greyhounds came out just short in a 1-0 loss.

So, that bracket is fairly sound.

Such is not the case for Class AAAA. Consider the following teams that are out:

• Governor Mifflin (No. 1) -- the Mustangs won Berks I and Berks County Tournament titles and were 17-2 until No. 16 Cedar Cliff sent them packing, 4-3, Tuesday


• Cedar Crest (No. 2) -- the defending district champion were Lancaster-Lebanon Section I and Lancaster-Lebanon Tournament champions. No. 15 Wilson ended Crest's season, 11-4, Tuesday.


• Red Land (No. 3) -- Patriots came in winners of nine straight and were 16-4 before falling, 8-7, to No. 14 Spring Grove on Monday.


• Cumberland Valley (No. 6) -- Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division champions came into this one limping. The Eagles lost their final two games of the season (to Ephrata and to West Perry in the Mid-Penn Tournament) and were without Mike Palkovitz, their slugging first baseman who missed the game due to undisclosed injury. Warwick ended CV's season, 3-2.


• South Western (No. 18) -- Sure, the Mustangs weren't a very high seed, but they were the defending 3-AAAA runners-up. Wilson took care of them, 9-2, in Saturday's preliminary round.

Now, the question becomes: who is the favorite to win this thing? Well, we picked Crest to beat Hempfield in the final with Chambersburg grabbing the third bid to states by beating Red Land.

The fourth-seeded Trojans are now our favorite ... unless Lower Dauphin beats Cedar Cliff. If that happens, we could see Chambersburg's Mitch Warner vs. LD's Casey Kulina in the semifinals on Tuesday. Winner of that would be the favorite, but, with Kulina unavailable Thursday, we like Cedar Cliff to knock the Falcons out and have a shot to crack the state field with one more win.

In the bottom half, Warwick should emerge by beating Spring Grove and Manheim Twp.

So, our new picks for top three in 3-AAAA: Chambersburg, Warwick and Manheim Twp.