District baseball tournaments in Class 1A wrapped up on Saturday and now the process of laying out the 16-team state tournament bracket begins. First round games are set for next week and the two survivors will collide for the state championship on Thursday May 19th.
District champions earn automatic bids to the state tournament and they are seeded one through five based on RPI following district tournaments. It appears that the CHSAA RPI standings include all games as they were updated at 7:00pm on Saturday night. Using those stats, we have the regional champs seeded in this order. The top four seeds will host the regional tournaments.
- Merino
- Cheyenne Wells
- Evangelical Christian
- Dove Creek
- Flatirons Academy
The remaining 11 qualifiers are determined by RPI with one caveat as the runner-up teams in Districts 2, 4 and 5 earn automatic bids. Those brackets had more than four teams competing for the district title so the second place team gets in. All would have qualified through straight RPI regardless of district finish. Second place teams in Districts 1 and 3 do not automatically qualify since the brackets included just four clubs. That hurts Dayspring Christian as the Eagles finished second to Flatirons in their bracket but are not likely in the tournament due to a low RPI.
Here are the remaining qualifiers based on RPI and we list them in order by RPI.
- Holly
- Simla
- Haxtun
- Granada
- Stratton
- Caliche
- Otis
- Nucla
- Eads
- Elbert
- Prairie
Using those 16 qualifiers, Colorado Preps projects the state tournament bracket. Games are listed in bracket order and again the top four teams host four team brackets on Friday and Saturday. Winners advance to the Final Four.
- #1 Merino vs #16 Prairie
- #8 Haxtun vs #9 Granada
- #4 Dove Creek vs #13 Otis
- #5 Flatirons Academy vs #12 Nucla
- #2 Cheyenne Wells vs #15 Elbert
- #7 Simla vs #10 Stratton
- #3 Evangelical Christian vs #14 Eads
- #6 Holly vs #11 Caliche
We flipped Otis and Nucla in the bracket to avoid a first round pairing of Dove Creek and Nucla since they are in the same district and league.
Please note these are projections only and not official. CHSAA will release official pairings either Sunday or Monday.
UPDATE: The above story was based on RPI issued by CHSAA at 7:17pm on Saturday but the rankings were updated an hour later at 8:17pm. The only change in seed order involves Haxtun and Simla as the Bulldogs moved ahead of the Cubs in the RPI. That would move Haxtun to the seventh seed and drop Simla to eighth in our proposed bracket.
