In 'perfect storm,' Jefferson Forest baseball misses playoffs in Region 4D after losing coin flip (2024)

The baseball team at Jefferson Forest won 15 times this spring and only dropped five games, a record that in most years is more than sufficient for making the Virginia High School League playoffs.

But the Cavaliers will not see the postseason this spring. The perennial powerhouse on Tuesday was left standing on the sidelines after a coin flip to decide which team advanced to the Region 4D tournament went against them.

At the conclusion of the regular season, JF and Halifax found themselves with identical records for the final spot from the South division of Region 4D. The region expanded from 12 to 15 schools prior to the start of the 2023-24 academic year and is split into North and South divisions for the playoffs.

Athletic directors in 4D decided that for the playoffs, the region would take the top four teams from the North and the top four teams from the South.

The southern part of the bracket is full of stronger baseball teams at the moment. It features top-seeded Blacksburg (16-3), second seed E.C. Glass (16-4), No. 3 Salem (16-4) and No. 4 Halifax County (15-5). The North side is weaker, with two teams that made the field featuring records of .500 or worse— No. 3 Orange County (10-10) and No. 4 Charlottesville (5-9).

Meanwhile, in the South, two traditionally strong baseball schools were left out of the playoffs— Amherst (14-6) and JF.

Jefferson Forest and Halifax were forced to flip a coin because the two teams could find no separation on any of the other qualifications for advancing in a tiebreaker situation, rules set up by the region. In the event of a tiebreaker, here is the region's method for determining which team moves on:

JF and Halifax did not meet the first method, because they did not play each other. As far as common opponents go, they each defeated region member Mecklenburg County and both lost to Liberty Christian, from Region 3C. They tied in the total wins category at 15. When all of those avenues were exhausted, a coin flip became necessary.

Region 4D is among the largest in the VHSL. Geographically, JF athletic director Jeremy Sink noted, "we stretch from almost West Virginia to the North Carolina border."

One reason the ADs decided to divide the region into subregions, then, was to limit travel.

"We're probably the biggest region, geographically, as far as distance between schools," Amherst athletic director Robert Curd, the 4D chairman, said. ADs, he added, wanted to limit the amount of travel for the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, so athletes wouldn't have to travel a high number of hours on a school night.

The region's plan, Sink said, mostly worked throughout the fall and winter seasons this school year. Sometimes a coin flip was necessary for seeding purposes, but never in a situation that kept another team from competing in the playoffs.

"I don't think anybody could have foreseen this perfect storm like we have in baseball," Sink said.

And in this case, its a team worthy of being in the playoffs. Jefferson Forest has a long baseball history, with plenty of success dating back decades. It regularly makes postseason runs, owns region titles and has advanced to three state championship games, winning one.

And this year, the Cavaliers started the season with eight straight victories before losing to E.C. Glass (the Hilltoppers also had to have a coin flip with Salem this week to determine which team would take the No. 2 seed. Glass won it, Salem took third, and both teams sport 16-4 records).

And Forest was strong down the stretch, too: it won five of its last seven, losing again to Glass, and on Monday, to Region 3C No. 1 seed LCA, a game resumed from Friday that led to the situation that kept Forest out of the playoffs.

Three of JF's five losses were by one run. In all three instances, the opposition won by walk-off.

"The ball goes one way or the other in any of those walk-off games and we're in the playoffs," Sink said.

Sink headed Tuesday afternoon to talk with the team, to "tell them a rundown of how and why" the events transpired as they did. He noted, too, that both Jefferson Forest and Amherst, were they in the North sub-region, would not only be in the playoffs — they'd be hosting first-round games.

Players, he said, "knew the destiny that was in front of us," once they lost to LCA on Monday, in a game that began Friday and was suspended by rain. "They knew we were probably headed to a coin flip."

Curd, the region chair, noted traveling is an issue during the playoffs, especially since athletes often are taking SOLs, or some kind of end-of-the-year testing. A game, say between Amherst to John Handley that would require a total of driving time of nearly six hours, is not feasible.

"In a perfect world, who cares how far you travel," he said, adding there are "a lot of factors" to consider when setting up a postseason format. The VHSL allows each region to decide how it wants to conduct region play, which takes place prior to state tournaments, and regions embrace the autonomy.

Curd also noted the format affected Amherst, which also has a strong baseball tradition and posted playoff-worthy numbers during the regular season.

"Our team can compete with anybody in the state on any given night," Curd said, "and we're on the outside looking in."

Curd and Sink said athletic directors from the region will meet during the summer to discuss possible chances to the format.

"We've got to get back to the books and look at it again and see what we can do, if we can do anything, to improve it," Curd said. "No system is perfect, so I don't care how we tweak it, there's gonna be some anomalies that exist. ... We're gonna try to learn from it."

Note: Teams in Region 4D include Amherst, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, E.C. Glass, GW-Danville, Halifax County, John Handley, James Wood, Jefferson Forest, Liberty-Bealeton, Mecklenburg County, Millbrook, Orange County, Salem (Roanoke) and Sherando.