The first in-season edition of the Starting 9 experienced a bit of a delay with the high volume of rain outs during the beginning of the 2011 Vermont High School baseball season. Many of the area baseball games were able to be made up while we saw a good run of sunny days this weekend, but according to this week’s weather forecast we may see a few postponements this week as well.
On the field, this past weekend was proof that there is no clear cut favorite in Division I, as there are now no teams who are left undefeated as BFA fell to Rice, and Rutland had a seven game win streak snapped to Amherst-Pelham (MA) this Saturday. In addition, earlier in the week one of the front runners (Rice) fell 11-0 to a Colchester team who’s starting pitchers are making the Lakers more than an offensive juggernaut. Zach Tandy of Colchester, shut down an explosive Rice offense, shutting out the Green Knights in a complete game victory allowing only two hits. Adding Tandy as a solid pitcher to the Lakers top of the rotation, who already had a proven starter in Matt Ravey (Ravey spun a 68-pitch complete game victory vs SB on Saturday), will give Colchester a great 1-2 punch to add to its dynamic offense. The convincing win over Rice, and solid past week propelled them into the top spot despite the early season loss to BFA St. Albans.
Speaking of BFA St. Albans, the Bobwhites may have gotten one of the most exciting wins of the season on Friday as they squeezed their way past MMU in the 11th inning. In a game where Sam Spencer threw 10 2/3 (not a typo), and Andrew Delirichiliere threw 10 1/3 innings (also not a typo), Nick Swim came home on a Ruben Gilbert suicide squeeze to end the marathon up in St. Albans. The 11th inning win kept BFA undefeated at 3-0, but this lasted less than 24 hours as they fell the next day to Rice by a score of 3-1. The Bobwhites, who are a similar team to Colchester with offensive power and a good 1-2 starting punch in Taylor Raftery and Delirichiliere, will look to climb up the rankings by sweeping up a set of games over some Division II teams this week. One of those teams they will look to get passed is Missisquoi, a metro team which may be the best Division II has to offer. With a great starter in Ben Fournier and other core players in Adam Hubbard, Kyle Lumsden, and Matt St. Amour who are great all around athletes, the Thunderbirds may be poised for a title run.
The coming week will be critical for a couple of teams who are looking to rebound from slow starts. CVU who started the year with an impressive win over Vermont Scoreboard favorite MMU, has dropped 3 straight (Missisquoi, Rice, Mt. Abraham). While the Redhawks have lost to three quality teams, they’ll need to pick up some wins to regain the confidence they claimed after their opening day victory. Mount Mansfield will also look to rebound and put together a winning streak. While they have not been beaten convincingly yet in their two losses (6-4 to CVU, 1-0 to BFA in 11 innings), they own a win against Essex and will look to pick up 3 winnable games this week.
Check out the rest of our rankings below:
| Rank | Team Name | Record | Notes |
| 1 | Colchester | 4-1 | Can prove themselves worthy of the #1 spot with wins over DII contender Mt. Abe, and DI contender Essex this week |
| 2 | Rice | 4-1 | Will look to build off a solid win over last year’s runner-up and previously undefeated BFA St. Albans |
| 3 | BFA St. Albans | 3-1 | Needs to rebound from the Rice loss and do so against cross-town rival Missisquoi who is no pushover this year |
| 4 | Rutland | 7-1 | Lost their first game this weekend but is still undefeated in Vermont competition |
| 5 | Mount Mansfield | 4-2 | On paper, should go 3-0 this week….will they? |
| 6 | Essex | 4-1 | Essex keeps chugging along as they are excited to get contributions from solid new sophomore Steve Jurkiewicz |
| 7 | Missisquoi | 2-1 | Doesn’t want to lose to rival BFA and can prove they are the heavy favorite in DII with a win |
| 8 | Mt. Anthony | 7-2 | The good news – they are 7-2, the bad news – 5 of those wins vs DII, and lost to the only quality DI southern teams in Rutland and Brattleboro – on a two game losing streak |
| 9 | CVU | 1-3 | Even with the 1-3 record, the Redhawks are in the bottom spot as they lost to Rice in the final inning, and lost to the two best DII teams – they will need to win atleast 2 games this week to stay here |
GAMES TO WATCH THIS WEEK:
Missisquoi (2-1) at BFA St. Albans – Monday – 5/2 – Nothing like a rivalry game. This one holds more meaning with both teams being contenders in their respective divisions.
CVU (1-3) at Essex (4-1) – Tuesday – 5/3 – A couple of Division I contenders. A win for CVU could be big for their confidence.
Essex (4-1) at Colchester (4-1) – Thursday – 5/4 – Colchester can show they aren’t pretenders with a win, while Essex can solidify that they’ve reloaded
South Burlington (2-3) at Rice (4-1) – Thursday – 5/4 – Another rivalry game between two schools who share the same town.
Hmmm…Rice snubbed again on these rankings in the #2 spot, when will they get respect??
Thanks for your comment Ricearoni…Colchester had an early season loss, and while I think Rice (and even BFA) is worthy of the #1 spot and may get there at some point, only one team can have. Colchester has been playing the best lately, and in my opinion, the fact that Colchester beat Rice 11-0 last week, it’s hard to justify putting Rice ahead of them…but again, I think 7 teams in the Starting 9 can win the State Championship this year, it is so wide open!
Thanks for your comment, keep them coming!
Shane, keep up the good work, great story and awesome pictures.
Hahahaha How can that guy expect Rice to be #1 when Tandy owned them. There is no way they should be #1 Right now I completely agree with the standings you have Shane. Great work keep it up!
how is brattleboro NOT on here..? we beat MAU, we play rutland tomorrow, we are better than 4-3, yeah weve had our ups and downs, but were at our ups right now.. watch out
Please…..Bratt fan you are misguided. Do you really think you deserve to be in the top 9. Yah youre 4-3 but 2 of your 4 wins are against Division 3 Bellows Falls. You also lost to Burr and Burton. I’ll take close losses to Metro teams and wins vs middle of the pack metro teams to a d3 win anyday
I feel that rice is all about hype. Hype is something that.isn’t real. Ill take a real team like Essex or colchester over a team that only looks good on paoer
Although Brattleboro does have the potential to be good they have yet to prove it. They are 4-3 with a tough loss to Burr and Burton in extra innings and the other two losses coming to out of state teams. If they can start putting up a lot of runs against weak teams or beat quality D1 teams then they should be in the top 9. BrattBaseball10, you have more to prove before you crack the top 9, so settle down.
DJG I agree but take Essex out of that There nothing special this year. Put teams like St.Albans and MMU into that.
how hasnt bratt proved it yet? they beat MAU who is on this list.. theyve got the best shortstop in the state, Soren Pelz-Walsh (arguably), their best hitter is a sophomore, Evan Parro, and they have 2 good pitchers in Tommy Heydinger and Sawyer Olson, they may not have proven themselves yet, but i wouldnt wanna play them in the playoffs.. theyll be a tough out.
Mawho,
Thanks for your comment…your saying “they may not have proven themselves yet…” kind of says it all in my book, in my humble opinion. These rankings are current to today (actually Monday), and at that point Brattleboro hadn’t proved they belonged in the top 9 yet. Doesn’t mean they can’t make it there. Beat Rutland and/or Mount Anthony again and you’ve made a strong case to be there, but as of now I’m not sure. On a side note, Pelz-Walsh is a fantastic shortstop, good hitter too…saw him play a bunch in Legion ball.
How can you say Bratt should be in the top 9?? The lost to DII Burr and Burton and only had 5 hits in 11 innings. Lewicki pitched 9 innings for Burr Burton and Bratt didn’t score any runs off of him. Bratt beat mau, but mau was missing 7 of their players that day.
Check your sources baseballfan.
Mau was not missing 7 players. They were missing 1 pitcher and 1 everyday player. Overrateddddddddd!
MAU, OVERRATED! and they were never missing 7 players, dont let the banner fool you with those funny excuses, maybe 7 bench players
Rice a roni…Rice snubbed at #2 ? Hahahaha, good one. Not even a top 5 team. How could you put them ahead of Colchester who pasted them 11-0? Saw that game and it looked like a varsity team playing a middle school B team.
bratt just beat BBA 9-3, rutland beat them 8-3, but bratt probably wont get credit, will they? maybe you guys from up north should come watch bratt play before you say their not in the top 9
“you guys up north should see Bratt play before you say their out of the top 9″… Maybe but again, this game vs BBA was today!!!!!! These rankings were done Monday, did Bratt prove by last Monday they deserved it?? No, they didn’t. About, “bratt just beat BBA 9-3, Rutland beat them 8-3″… Yah your point? Dumb. Worst argument especially for a baseball game when score can fluctuate due to many factors most importantly pitching. Just a dumb dumb argument. Those two games are apples and oranges plus the margin of victory differnence is one measly run!!! That’s like saying UVM beat someone who beat someone who beat Duke , thus UVM is better than Duke…
you guys are way to defensive.. calm down!!
I would like to thank everyone for sayin bratt belongs in the top 9! This week we definitely proved ourselves! Let’s gooo bratt!!
PS, rutland lost to drury 4-3
colchester won today to. another steller performance by Matt Ravey on the mound. colchester played a tough game and won 4 – 3. colchester’s really the team to beat this year i think. Colchester, bfa, and essex are my top 3
To please
What happened in the Bratt rutland game?? I think rutland won
How about the Canes eh? Bringing up the back end of the standings with some power. That Avery kid is a tough battle, played him over the years and he has been d1 all state since his sophomore year all of which hitting over .420. He throws hard and has a lot of junk. Mullen being elected last year with two consecutive years of solid defense and over .400 batting average as well. A lot of respect for them since their solid 09 team. Coming off of a tough come back win against rice last year, with the same team. They are hungry and Avery and Mullen will make them a tough battle for Rice.