Some seasons, you’ll look at the WIVC champion in baseball or softball and think, yeah, they’re OK, but …

This is not one of those years.

The Routt baseball team is loaded with pitching and hitting. I didn’t see much of Routt early in the season, but the Rockets are really hitting well right now; they’re scoring virtually at will. Devin Vaughn leads the area in hitting with a .650 batting average, and Joe Zeller, probably the hardest-throwing pitcher in the area, is swinging a hot bat. He and Vaughn are tied for the area lead in RBIs with 34. Zeller also has 15 stolen bases on the season.

Routt will meet up with a tough Griggsville team that has beaten the Rockets already once this year (oops! Griggsville beat Routt’s JV team), but I think Routt should make it into the next round. Should be interesting.

No area softball team has been as dominant as the Virginia/A-C Central Redbirds this year. Beardstown is a solid team and should go far in the playoffs. But VAC’s numbers are staggering. Seven of the top nine players in the area in runs batted in play for Virginia/A-C. Brittany Parks still leads the area with a .552 batting average. The Lady Redbirds’ pitching ace, Taylor Jokisch, is well down the list in strikeouts, but her record is 15-0. I think the point of these games is still to win them, isn’t it? Jokisch induces a lot of pop-ups and ground balls, and her defense does the rest. Position by position, it’s one of the best defensive units to come along in awhile. If you hit it to Megan Bergerud at second base, you might as well turn around and walk back to the dugout. Jokisch, by the way, leads the area in ERA, giving up a stingy 1.10 runs per 7 innings.

Virginia/A-C will be playing in the Edinburg Regional, wherever that is, and could face Routt in the second round. The Lady Rockets have been playing better lately, and they’ve got one of the best pitcher-catcher combinations in the area in twin sisters Megan and Amy Lawless. Megan is third in the area in strikeouts with 124 in 90 2/3 innings this season.

My favorites to win regionals for baseball: Carrollton, Routt, Virginia, Triopia; and in Class 2A, Beardstown. For softball, Carrollton, Virginia, Triopia; and in Class 2A, Beardstown. That’s almost identical. Should be a fun week.

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