Expanded divisions reshape tournament path for Medina teams

Winning a sectional championship ain’t what it once was. At least not in Ohio big-school high school baseball and softball.

Technically, all 64 baseball teams in the state, and a few more softball squads, will enter the postseason as sectional champions. That’s what adding three divisions and further shrinking the largest one will do.

For Medina baseball coach Mark Kelly, the changes make sense based on the way the largest schools are clustered and the pretty big ones are now down a division.

“I came from small-town schools where there was a significant difference in enrollment numbers, which made it much harder to compete at the top of the divisions,” Kelly said. “For Division I, I believe the changes were a good thing because it is still a grind competing against the biggest schools.”

Northeast Ohio is broken down into four mini-districts in the big-school division. With a limited number of schools, this part of the state, which stretches from Mentor to Findlay, includes just 16 teams.

Medina (13-3), seeded No. 1 overall, will begin the postseason at home May 27 at 5 p.m. against No. 16 Cleveland Heights (3-14). The winner will play at 5 p.m. two days later for a district title against either No. 7 Perrysburg (12-6) or No. 13 Berea-Midpark (4-15), who also meet May 27. The district final will take place in North Ridgeville.

The Bees are in Northeast District 1. If they get out of North Ridgeville, they will move into a regional semifinal June 3 against the District 3 winner.

That would put the Bees against either No. 2 Strongsville (12-4), No. 9 Canton McKinley (10-7), No. 3 Canton GlenOak (14-5) or No. 10 Brunswick (8-9). The regional final is either June 3 or 4.

Medina’s softball team faces a similar route, with four extra teams in the Northeast Ohio Region, which covers a similar geographic area.

The Bees (14-5) got the No. 6 seed and chose Northeast District 2. They will play a district semifinal at 5 p.m. May 18 against No. 9 GlenOak (11-7). That game will be at Medina.

The winner will move on to play at 5 p.m. two days later at Massillon against either No. 16 Stow-Monroe Falls (7-7), No. 17 Euclid (11-7) or No. 2 Massillon Jackson (16-4), the latter a prohibitive favorite.

At the regional level, if Medina advances, it would play the winner of District 3, which is headed by No. 3 seed Mentor (14-7). The next-best seed in that bracket belongs to No. 10 Brunswick (11-9). Dates, times and locations are to be determined.

As was the case with Kelly, Bees softball coach Eric Minzer believes the tournament setup is fine. The best, for the most part, still emerge from the districts and square off in the final 16.

“They are rewarding the four top teams by allowing them to choose which district they want and with home field,” he said. “The going gets really tough in regionals. You still have to play good ball to win your district. That simple.”

Track

In a final tuneup for league meets and the postseason, Medina hosted the annual Last Chance Meet and several Bees stood out.

Winners for the boys included Jackson Riffle (100, 400 and long jump), Liam Meade (800), Connor Brink (shot put), and the 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams.

For the girls, winners were Alexis Warnement (1600) and the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams.

The boys topped the six-team field with 147 points to Berea-Midpark’s 112. The girls were easy winners over second-place Ravenna, 123-90.