Section III sets baseball, softball playoff seeds with new sytem

The seeds and schedules are set and the competitive window is narrow for Section III's 2024 high school baseball and softball playoffs.

Brackets were announced for all 12 divisions Sunday - six for baseball and six for softball as the spring completes the first academic year with the state's expansion from five classes.

For the first time, Section III is using the Bradley-Terry model for seeding for the bat-and-ball sports. Bradley-Terry is a probability for the outcomes between individual teams, and the seeds reflect a change from past seeding based on overall and league winning percentages. Holland Patent, for example, is the No. 1 seed for Class B baseball with a .500 record (9-9); there are three teams with more wins and three others with higher winning percentages, but Holland Patent has a .733 Bradley-Terry score with Phoenix (12-2) next at .644 and Lowville Academy (11-5, .567), Cazenovia (8-6, .519) and Clinton (8-6, .518) also above .500 on that scale.

Jamesville-DeWitt, the top seed in Class A with a 14-1 record, has Section III's highest baseball score on the scale - .951 - while five of seven teams in Class AAA are over .900, two in Class AA, and New Hartford and Camden with Jamesville-DeWitt in Class A.

The scale is designed to compare all schools and is designed to reflect strength of schedule, weighting it toward the larger classes. Bishop Ludden of Syracuse, the No. 1 seed in Class C, has the only score over .800 (.830) in the lower three classes.

The seeds are similar for softball. Class A Camden edges Class AAA Liverpool for the highest overall score, .979-.978, while seven other schools are over .900, including Notre Dame of Utica, the top seed in Class B and the highest scorer in the three smaller classes.

The other No. 1 seeds for baseball are Class AAA Baldwinsville, Class AA West Genesee, and Oriskany, the returning champion in Class D. Jamesville-DeWitt was also a 2023 sectional champ.

For the girls, top seeds went to Whitesboro in Class AA, Sandy Creek in Class C, and Cincinnatus in Class D. Liverpool and Sandy Creek were sectional champs in classes AA and C in 2022; none of 2023 champions are No. 1 seeds this spring.

Play begins Monday afternoon for Classes AA and C in baseball, and classes AAA and C in softball. The other classes start Tuesday. The first championship game is Class AAA softball Friday with the other softball games May 28 and 29 at Carrier Park in Syracuse. The baseball finals will be played at Onondaga Community College May 26-28.

Here's a quick look at the local bracket highlights:

Class AAA Baseball

Utica's Proctor Raiders (13-5) are seeded second behind only Baldwinsville (14-5) in a seven-team field and plays at home Tuesday against Syracuse City Schools (6-12). Rome Free Academy (12-7) is No. 6 and plays at No. 3 Cicero-North Syracuse (13-6) with the winner matching up with Proctor or Syracuse in Thursday's semifinals in Auburn.

Class AAA Softball

Rome Free Academy (10-9) is seeded fourth among five teams and plays at home against the Syracuse City Schools team in the lone quarterfinal with the winner advancing to meet Liverpool (10-7) in Wednesday semifinal at Carrier Park.

The Black Knights started the season 6-1, including a six-game winning streak, but have lost four consecutive games, won four in a row, and lost four more since that start.

Class AA Baseball

Whitesboro (7-9) is the No. 3 seed behind West Genesee (11-7) and Fayetteville-Manlius (10-7), the only two AA schools it has played against this spring. The Warriors have a home game Tuesday against No. 6 Fulton (6-13)

Class AA Softball

Top seed Whitesboro is 14-3 with wins in 11 of its last 12 games and awaits the winner of Tuesday's game between No. 8 East Syracuse-Minoa (6-11) and No. 9 Fulton (4-13) for its Wednesday quarterfinal.

Whitesboro beat East Syracuse-Minoa 8-6 at Carrier Park in April. The Warriors are 4-0 against Class AA competition and 4-0 against Class AAA; their three losses were against Class A Camden, Central Valley Academy and New Hartford in Tri-Valley League play.

Class A Baseball

New Hartford (14-4) drew the No. 2 seed and joined Jamesville-DeWitt (14-1) with a bye to the Thursday semifinals.

The Spartans await the winner of Tuesday's game between No. 7 Central Valley Academy (8-11) and No. 10 Homer (8-8). Central Valley Academy plays at home after beating Homer 8-4 on the road at the start of the month.

No. 3 Camden (16-3) and No. 6 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (9-7) play home games Tuesday and could meet in the next round Thursday. Camden hosts winless Indian River (0-11); Vernon-Verona-Sherrill's opponent is No. 11 Mexico Academy (7-8). Oneida (5-10) is seeded ninth and plays at No. 8 South Jefferson (11-5) with the winner advancing to play Jamesville-DeWitt.

Class A Softball

Tri-Valley League rivals Camden and New Hartford are the top two seeds in a nine-team field that also includes No. 4 Central Valley Academy; all three have byes to Thursday's quarterfinals while No. 9 Oneida (6-12) travels to Cortland (7-9) Tuesday to determine the opponent for Camden (16-2).

No. 2 New Hartford (12-5) hosts No. 7 Westhill (9-4) at Accelerate Thursday while Central Valley Academy (13-5) gets No. 5 Jamesville-DeWitt (14-3), last year's Class A champ, in its game at Lower Tolpa.

The semifinals will be played Saturday at Onondaga Community College.

Class B Baseball

Holland Patent holds the top spot among 16 teams and plays at home against No. 16 Jordan-Elbridge (3-12).No. 5 Clinton (9-7), No. 6 Canastota (10-6), No. 7 Adirondack (9-10-1) and No. 8 Little Falls (7-12), last year's Class C champion, all play Tuesday home games.

Canastota hosts No. 11 Herkimer (7-10), a team with which the Raiders split decisions in league play during the regular season. Adirondack plays Marcellus (6-12), Clinton hosts Syracuse-Bishop Grimes (5-13), and Little Falls' opponent is General Brown (9-8) with the winner potentially meeting Holland Patent next.

Class B Softball

Two teams opted out of the Class B playoffs leaving a 16-team bracket that starts with a full slate of Tuesday games.

Notre Dame (12-4) and No. 4 Holland Patent (5-9), a possible semifinal opponent looking down the line, have home games in the first round, Notre Dame against No. 16 Clinton (5-13), and Holland Patent against No. 13 General Brown (5-11).

No. 10 Sherburne-Earlville (12-1) and No. 12 Herkimer (13-5), the Center State Conference's Division I co-champions, have been sent on the road to start by Bradley-Terry; Herkimer plays at No. 5 Solvay (9-7) with Holland Patent as a possible quarterfinal opponent, and Sherburne-Earlville heads to Onondaga for a game against No. 7 Onondaga/LaFayette (9-5).

Class C Baseball

Twenty-two teams make up the largest spring bracket for Section III in Class C baseball.

No. 2 West Canada Valley (13-2), No. 4 Mt. Markham (12-4) and No. 5 Sauquoit Valley (12-5) have byes to Tuesday home games and will learn their opponents with Monday's results. No. 9 Cooperstown (7-10) and No. 10 Morrisville-Eaton (13-3) are also off Monday but play on the road at LaFayette (9-4) and Beaver River (10-6), respectively.

Westmorelnd (5-14) hosts Onondaga (3-15) Monday with the winner advancing to play Sauquoit Valley. Notre Dame (1-16) welcomes Waterville (6-9) to Utica with the winner playing again Tuesday at Mt. Markham.

West Canada Valley's opponent will be Cato-Meridian (7-7) or Port Byron (5-8). Frankfort-Schuyler (6-8) hosts Otselic Valley/Cincinnatus (5-8) Monday and the winner plays at No. 6 Tully (13-4) Tuesday.

Class C Softball

All 20 Class C teams opted into the open playoffs and the Center State Conference's West Canada Valley (10-4), Westmoreland (10-6), Mt. Markham (11-6) and Morrisville-Eaton (11-7), seeded 13-16, got the home games for Monday's preliminary round, three against other Center State Conference schools. The winner between Morrisville-Eaton and No. 7 Frankfort-Schuyler (5-14) advances to play at No. 1 Sandy Creek (16-2) Tuesday.

Cooperstown (12-7), the 2023 Class C champion, earned the Center State Conference's top seed - No. 11 - and plays at No. 6 Tully Tuesday.

Class D Baseball

Oriskany (14-2), winner of seven of eight games in May, and No. 4 Poland (8-7) are off until Thursday and await the winners of Tuesday games in 12-team bracket.

New York Mills (6-10), seeded ninth, travels to greater Syracuse Tuesday to play Mater Dei Academy (5-11) for the spot opposite Oriskany in Thursday's quarterfinals. Poland gets the winner of a game between McGraw (11-4) and Copenhagen (5-13).

Seventh-seeded Stockbridge Valley (7-7) hosts Hamilton (5-9) Tuesday, and No. 6 Madison (9-5) plays at home against Alexandria (6-8). The winners travel north for the next round against Belleville-Henderson (14-2) and Lyme (12-3).

Class D Softball

Cincinnatus (12-3) and Stockbridge Valley (10-3) from the Central Counties League earned the top two seeds and the two byes for a 14-team field.

Oriskany (17-2), the 2022 champion, is seeded fifth and plays at Tuesday home game against No. 12 Alexandria (3-11). Poland (8-8), the 2023 champion, is seeded 14th and plays in Syracuse at No. 3 Bishop Ludden (8-8), a rematch of the 2021 championship game.