[Mr.Kimball]

In 2004, JC's final four team had a losing record goin into district championship game, 16-wins 17-losses. They beat paintsville, who they had lost to twice in the regular season, they beat pikeville two games later who they had lost to three times in the regular season and came back in the regional finals for 2nd time in two years (lost to allen central in '03) and beat paintsville, which i think was toughest team in the region that year. That team put everything together at the end of the season and tried to make a run. Like Redneck stated above, anything can happen in baseball... Im sure thats the same thing Allen Central said in 2003 when they won the region.

I dont know what any team in the 15th has players wise, but you can count on JC, Paintsville, Pikeville and Lawerence all fielding a decent team. They are the front runners of the 15th and will always be, everynow and then there will be sleeper in the mix, who will upset a few teams.

Agree with everything you said, but would like to make 1 little correction. Central actually had a 16-17 record going into the district tournament in the first game against Magoffin. Adam Blanton and Corey Conley then went on just an unbelievable run, by winning 7 out the next 8 post season games on the mound for Central by themselves. The only post season game won by any other pitcher was the Allen Central massacre in the first game of the regional tournament. During this run, Blanton only gave up something like 2 earned runs in the last 30 innings he threw . Also during that run Conley and Blanton beat a great Paintsville team twice, a Pikeville team that was ranked with a 30-6 record, a Hazard team twice that was ranked also with a 30-6 record, and then another ranked team in Ashland at Appleebees.

Johnson Central had a lot of talent on that particular team, much better than their regular season record indicated. In my opinion, a lot of their post season success came from the tough regular season schedule that they played. I guess what I am getting at, is the regular season record does not always tell the whole tale about how good a team actually is or how bad a team that it isn't. The whole idea is to learn something from every regular season game that you play, and then apply that knowledge to gain an advantage when the real season kicks in. I think that that team is a prime example of a team that really did take advantage of the knocks and bangs that they received from their tough (pre) post season schedule.

But you are right, all of the teams that you mentioned, with the addition of Sheldon Clark are always in the mix when it comes post season time and should never be taken lightly.

Just a side note, that group of players that were in the 2005 graduating class was probably the most talented group of kids to ever play in the 15th region all at the same time. Pikeville, Paintsville, Sheldon Clark, Johnson Central, and (Lawrence Co. was a 16th region team at that time) all had bumper crops of talent. In my opinion it was the Golden Era for 15th region baseball.