It's Playoff Time!!!!!!!!!!

The Area I East and West playoffs begin this evening with the top four teams in the North and South divisions facing off in best-of-three series. Wayne County will play host to Edgecombe County, Rocky Mount welcomes New Bern, Pitt 39 travels to Wilson and Kinston will be home against Edenton. The second round, a best-of-five, will begin Tuesday.

Wayne County tied with Pitt and Kinston for first place but got the South No. 1 as a result of having the best record among the group. Post 11 will take a 14-4 record into the postseason in its quest to make a second straight trip to the state tournament, being held this year in Gastonia. Edgecombe County is 3-15 but has a recent win over 16-4 Wilson to its credit.

What is the most likely route to success for Post 11 this postseason? The 2008 edition went 6-0 out of the gate and got steady and reliable performances from its young pitching staff. In those six games the staff had a 1.80 ERA and allowed 49 hits in 50 innings. The offense was scoring 8.5 runs per game.

Then came the three-game slide that resulted from the team allowing 28 runs. The ERA jumped over two points. Wayne would right the ship and win seven straight but the pitching woes continued as the staff struggled with consistency.

Here is a comparison of the 2007 and 2008 teams after they completed their regular seasons. A couple of caveats are in order. Last year's team played at Mount Olive College and had a disadvantage when it came to home runs, so this year's team's 19 may not be as impressive as it seems.

In addition, the advantage in pitching on the 2007 squad is even more pronounced than the numbers would suggest, even though the pitchers were gaining the advantage of playing in a much bigger park. At that point, Garrett Davis had thrown nine innings and Grant Sasser a tad over 13. Both would figure prominently in Wayne's postseason push. The current team has no one approaching those two.

One other disturbing number: the 2008 team has allowed 40 percent of the opposition runners to score, the second worst rate in the past 19 seasons. Only two other teams have allowed more than 6.2 runs per game.

But there is another number that needs to be addressed. The sign of a good team is that it doesn't merely beat the other teams; it beats up on them. (Click here to look at "winning the close ones.") The elite Wayne County teams record-wise won over 80 percent of the games in which the margin of victory was at least three runs. The 2008 team is 12-3 in such contests. Good American Legion teams don't play a lot of close games.

So, who's hot heading into the playoffs? For one, John Wooten. In the first nine games, he was 9-36 with five RBI and no home runs. Since then, he's 15-35 with five home runs and 17 RBI.

Zach Wright through seven games was 4-19 with seven RBI Since then, he's 15-32 with five home runs.

Walker Gourley started out like a ball of fire and probably had nowhere to go but down. In the first seven games, he was 15-26 with seven extra base hits and 12 RBI. From that point, he "declined" to 16-42 with 6 RBI.

In the first nine games, 32 of the 54 runs allowed were earned. Since then, 46/57. That coincides with the reduction in errors. First nine games, Wayne made 29 to the opposition's 19 but since then opponents have a 31-21 disadvantage.

Well, it's getting late. See you later today.