No favorite emerges yet in area high school baseball

Here we are two weeks into the season, and I don’t know if anything has really been settled.

Who’s the baseball favorite?

Biggest surprise? They haven’t played that much yet, but Whitwell’s Tigers are still undefeated after hosting a wood bat tournament this past weekend.

There finally were two Chattanooga teams — Red Bank and Baylor — in McCallie’s Scenic City championship, meaning that a Chattanooga team finally would win it. Baylor pounced on Red Bank starter Jake Ledbetter, the lefty with the usually tantalizing curve ball and Tom Glavine’s off-the-outside-corner philosophy. Red Bank, coached by veteran Bumper Reese, is loaded with both left- and right-handed pitcher and the Lions have a quality pitching mentor in Jared Hensley.

Baylor should be a favorite for the Division II state championship, and Red Bank remains the District 6-AAA title pick. Keep an eye, though, on Soddy-Daisy with yet another blue-collar team. It’s anybody’s guess about Ooltewah, but coach John Massey has been pleased thus far with his team’s esprit de corps.

Is McMinn County still the 5-AAA pick? The Cherokees had to come back on the second night last week to salvage a split with Walker Valley and they still have to play Cleveland, Bradley Central and Rhea County, the latter of which beat Ooltewah in the Owls’ Varsity Team Sports Invitational last week.

Marion County still looks to be the 6-AA team to beat but Hixson can beat anybody when Josh Coppinger is on the mound. The Wildcats are still looking for a solid No. 2.

Notre Dame coach Brian Hitchcox has to be pleased with the development of Ben Howard as a pitcher and the Irish have shown already that, one, they can handle a bat and, two, they are going to keep the pressure on defenses with an aggressive running game.

One would think that McMinn Central will be the 5-AA favorite until somebody in the district beats the Chargers but Boyd-Buchanan, a day after getting 10-runned in five innings by Ringgold, came back to beat Johnson City’s Science Hill, a team expected to be among the Class AAA state favorites. Don’t overlook Polk County or Meigs County.

That leaves 6-A where Lookout Valley is looking for another state tournament trip, and 5-A where Grace Academy might wind up benefiting grealy from a schedule filled with AAA and AA opponents.

North Georgia? Who knows? They have all shown up well in cross-state games with Tennessee teams including Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe’s win over Ooltewah and Gordon Lee winning Lookout Valley’s Yellow Jacket Classic last week. It should be interesting when LFO, Northwest Whitfield, Southeast Whitfield, Dalton, Ringgold and Ridgeland begin playing region series.