Fate of North baseball’s season in computer’s hands
In the old days, it was easy to figure out the teams who went to regionals.
If you made it to the district championship game, you made it to regionals. The winner of that game got to play the first regional game at home, the loser on the road.
That format made it possible for an inferior team to make regionals and penalized good (or even great) teams for stubbing their toe in the district semis.
The computer rankings were introduced a few years ago, and it has made the process of who makes regionals more fair. It takes into account a team’s strength of schedule along with wins and losses and not how they did playing district teams.
It is certainly more exciting and has many teams who are on the fence holding their breath, hoping they are among the top eight in the region.
North Fort Myers baseball is one of those teams right now.
The 15-10 Red Knights are at the mercy of that unemotional computer after losing the District 5A-11 semifinal game to Charlotte on Tuesday 3-2.
It looked like North might be on the outside looking in last week when the latest ranking had them at No. 9, the first team outside of Region 5A-3. They were 12-10 and did not have the strength of schedule on their side.
“I don’t know the formula. The team above us was a few points better,” North coach Garry Kamphouse said. “I know strength of schedule had something to do with that. With the teams we played it’ll be a toss of a coin.”
However, the Red Knights won three straight. On Monday, in the district quarterfinals, North pulled off the comeback of the year.
Trailing 4-0 in the seventh against Riverdale, they rallied and tied the game on a Matthew Blasena grand slam to send the game into extra innings. Ethan Rodriguez won the game in the eighth with a walk-off single.
That dramatic win gave North the chance to live another day in the district semis against top-seeded Charlotte (17-9), who was also No. 1 in the region going into the game.
North promptly found themselves in a hole as the Tarpons scored in the first on an Edwin Feliciano RBI grounder.
North starter Harrison Kabel had trouble finding the strike zone early as he walked two and hit two batters early.
He soon found himself down 3-0 after an errant throw by the third baseman allowed a runner to come home from first and an RBI grounder from Dylan Klossner to add another run.
Kabel steadied himself, allowing no more runs after that and only one walk.
Unfortunately, Charlotte starter Frank Planer had his good stuff going, and while North got runners on base, they couldn’t get the big hit to bring them home.
That changed in the sixth. With two out, Blasena walked. Junior Tome came up and hit a rocket to dead center field and out to make it a 3-2 game.
North had a final chance in the seventh, getting two runners on and the tying run in scoring position before Tarpon reliever Dom Giglio forced a pop-up to end it.
Now, North has to hope that last winning streak brings them into the top eight and that no team outside the top eight steals a spot by winning the district tourney.
Kamphouse said the team fought all season and made games interesting, for better or worse.
“These kids have fought all year. They worked their butts off, played hard when they practiced, and Kabel came out and pitched great,” Kamphouse said. “All season he was a gamer. They’re all gamers. They competed for seven innings and that’s all you can ask for.”