The Providence Grove baseball team will be completing its regular season this week. (Randolph Record)
There’s no Piedmont Athletic Conference Tournament in baseball this year, something that would have taken place this week. Instead, teams are wrapping up their regular seasons.
Opinions vary on the topic of whether to hold a tournament. The decision to nix the tournament was made prior to the school year.
“It’s fun to have,” Trinity coach Ryan Spencer said. “We always got to have a couple extra games.”
Teams can play up to 24 regular-season games, so a tournament provided opportunities, in some cases, for up to three more games.
Uwharrie Charter Academy coach Rob Shore, whose team won the 2024 tournament, said it was a nice perk for the Eagles, but he sees benefits of going without the tournament. UCA went on to win its second consecutive Class 1A state championship last year.
“Even beating a team like Randleman (in the PAC Tournament final), it didn’t help us in any of the rankings,” Shore said. “But I think it better prepared us going into the playoffs. To have that under our belts was huge.”
Randleman has a regular-season title in all four years of this conference cycle. The Tigers captured PAC Tournament titles in 2022 and 2023.
“It serves no purpose,” Randleman coach Jake Smith said of the tournament. “You’re playing the same teams over again for another week.”
Smith said there’s no harm either way regarding the tournament. He said he likes the emphasis on the regular season.
“It shows your whole season,” he said. “It’s not like I got to have (a tournament).”
Shore and others said that without a tournament it allowed the PAC to begin conference games a week later because they’re using this week as part of the regular season. That was beneficial, coaches said, especially for schools with winter sports teams making extended postseason appearances and keeping baseball players off the field.
Eastern Randolph coach Nate Cockman said he sees advantages either way. He said players like more games, something a tournament provides.
Yet without a tournament it makes this week – the final week prior to the state playoffs – more predictable.
“You get to save some pitching right before the playoffs,” Cockman said. “It has made this last week a little more mind at ease.”
State playoffs begin May 6 and conclude May 31.
Eastern Randolph played non-conference games as basketball players competed in the postseason without the risk of enduring a league setback.
“You see how much depth you have,” Cockman said. “Got us a chance to throw in some different lineups early.”
Around the Triad, some conferences are holding tournaments and others decided not to.
Current PAC teams will be spread among three conferences beginning with the next school year. So the tournament topic is bound to be revisited.
“I want to bring it back in our next conference,” Spencer said.
