With only a few weeks remaining in the 1A/2A baseball regular season, it’s time to start thinking about the post-season and where teams may be headed for regional tournaments. Colorado Preps takes a look at the two divisions based on RPI from April 20th and lays out the first edition of our post-season brackets.
CLASS 1A
This division takes a bit of predicting results as the top two teams from each of the five districts earn automatic bids into the postseason. District champs are also guaranteed to be seeded one through five with the top four serving as regional hosts. Then six more teams are selected by RPI to fill out the 16-team bracket. The state championship game is set for May 19th.
For projection purposes, we selected the following teams as the top two finishers in each district. Our projected champion is listed first.
- District 1: Nucla, Dove Creek
- District 2: Simla, Evangelical Christian
- District 3: Dayspring Christian, Flatirons Academy
- District 4: Holly, Granada
- District 5: Merino, Haxtun
Then using RPI from April 20th, six other clubs will make the tournament field as wildcards:
- Cheyenne Wells
- Stratton
- Eads
- Otis
- Caliche
- Prairie
Using RPI numbers, the district champions are seeded in this order
- Holly
- Merino
- Simla
- Dayspring Christian
- Nucla
The remaining qualifiers are seeded in this order based on RPI:
- Cheyenne Wells
- Granada
- Stratton
- Haxtun
- Evangelical Christian
- Eads
- Otis
- Caliche
- Prairie
- Dove Creek
- Flatirons Academy
And combining the two lists, the pairings come up in the order with teams listed in bold serving as regional hosts.
- #1 Holly vs #16 Flatirons Academy
- #8 Stratton vs #9 Haxtun
- #4 Dayspring Christian vs #13 Caliche
- #5 Nucla vs #12 Otis
- #3 Simla vs #14 Prairie
- #6 Cheyenne Wells vs #11 Eads
- #2 Merino vs #15 Dove Creek
- #7 Granada vs #10 Evangelical Christian
There would be some movement in the pairings as Cheyenne Wells and Eads are from the same district. As a result, Eads would likely be swapped with #12 Otis in the bracket. Dove Creek could also be swapped for travel purposes and that move involves Flatirons Academy. Would save both the Bulldogs and Bison some time on the road.
CLASS 2A
This division is very easy to roll out as RPI is the sole factor in qualifying and placing teams in the bracket. The top 32 teams in RPI at the end of the regular season qualify regardless of league finish and then the same list is used to set up the pairings. Teams can be moved to avoid league matchups in round one and the bottom 12 teams can be moved for geographical purposes.
Using the RPI from April 20th, the bracket lays out in this order. Again the regional hosts (top 8 seeds) are listed in bold.
UPPER HALF
- #1 Limon vs #32 Cedaredge
- #16 Akron vs #17 Fowler
- #8 Wiggins vs #25 County Line
- #9 Las Animas vs #24 Ellicott
- #4 St Mary’s vs #29 Custer County
- #13 Denver Christian vs #20 Monte Vista
- #5 Highland vs #28 Rangely
- #12 Trinidad vs #21 Centauri
LOWER HALF
- #2 Peyton vs #31 Rocky Ford
- #15 Lyons vs #18 Byers
- #7 Swink vs #26 Colorado Springs Christian
- #10 Burlington vs #23 Ignacio
- #6 Buena Vista vs #27 Crowley County
- #11 Dawson vs #22 Clear Creek
- #3 Rye vs #30 Del Norte
- #14 Wray vs #19 Yuma
First round league matchups can be found between Dawson-Clear Creek and Wray-Yuma so moves could be made there. Clear Creek could be swapped with Ignacio to reduce some travel for the Bobcats and then Yuma could be flipped with Byers as travel again is reduced for each team.
