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3A State Tournament Preview

June 8, 2016

Covered

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By John Nolan
Assistant Director of Scouting/Content Management 

3A State Bracket

Poquoson
Poquoson has been on a tear in the postseason, finishing the regular season third in the Colonial Rivers Conference 25 standings. Six straight wins later and Poquoson is the Conference 25 and 3A East Regional champs. Five of those wins have been one-run games, with Regional wins over York and Brentsville being walk-offs.
 

Rustburg
Rustburg is the Conference 30 champion and the 3A West runners up and returns to the State Tournament for the second straight year. The Red Devils have an 18-5 record and four of those losses came to 4A opponents that they play in their Seminole District schedule. Rustburg won games over Western Albemarle and Staunton River en route to clinching their State Tournament berth. 
 

Turner Ashby
Turner Ashby is currently ranked No. 17 in the PBR VA/DC Power 25 and the Knights are the Conference 29 and 3A West Champions. They have won their last thirteen games and have an overall record of 21-2 as they enter the State Tournament. The Knights swept a pair of games with 4A Sherando and beat Tunstall and Rustburg on their way to the Region Championship. 

Turner Ashby has plenty of depth on the mound, but their pitching rotation this spring has been anchored by a pair of big arms in senior Brenan Hanifee (East Carolina) and junior Justin Showalter (James Madison). Both pitchers are 7-0 this spring and Hanifee has a 0.78 ERA to go with 73 strikeouts and just four walks. Showalter has been nearly as tough, with a 1.40 ERA and 54 strikeouts of his own.

The Knights’ offense has been balanced all spring, with Hanifee, senior Grey Sherfey (Ferrum), and junior Cody Warner (VMI) among its leaders in batting average. Senior Trent Abernathy (Concord) is also a contributor and Logan Conley has taken a big step forward to help Turner Ashby this spring.

William Monroe
William Monroe is the Conference 28 champions, slipping narrowly by Brentsville in the Conference championship game. The Green Dragons won a tight first round game against Hopewell in the Region tournament before demolishing Colonial Heights in what might have been one of the most surprising final scores of the postseason so far. William Monroe then came up on the short end of one of Poquoson’s string of one-run victories in the 3A East championship.


Our Staff Picks:
Sammy Serrano, Jon Kaufman, and John Nolan: Turner Ashby

+Turner Ashby's collection of arms would allow the Knights to compete at any classification, elite arms always dominate in a short format. Turner Ashby defeats Rustburg.


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