Staff report

Seeds and pairings for the baseball playoffs officially will be announced on Monday by the NCHSAA.

The 32-team brackets are usually finalized by early in the afternoon.

First-round games are Tuesday. Second-round games are Friday.

West Rowan and East Rowan are in.

Carson also is expected to make the playoff field with no problem, along with SPC squads Lake Norman Charter and Northwest Cabarrus.

East Rowan is a lofty No. 2 in the 3A West RPI rankings, but West Rowan and East tied for first in the South Piedmont Conference and West swept East during the regular season, so for state playoff seeding purposes, West is considered the SPC champion.

West is fifth in the 3A West RPI rankings and likely be seeded fourth in the 3A West bracket.

East, which won the SPC tournament, will be seeded in the 9 to 10 range, something like that, because the Mustangs can’t be seeded ahead of any 3A West teams that won their conference or any 3A West teams from the 2A/3A and 3A/4A split leagues that were the top 3A team in their conference.

Long story short, East is going to be under-seeded and may only get one home game in the playoffs. It’s possible that game will be against Northwest Cabarrus or Carson.

Carson is 25th in 3A West RPI and will be seeded close to that number, so the Cougars will be traveling in the first round.

South Rowan (8-15), defending state champs, made a determined run at the end, but finished 37th in the 3A West RPI rankings and won’t make the playoffs.

Salisbury is 46th in the 2A West RPI rankings and has ended its season at 8-15.

North Rowan (5-12) is 35th in the 1A West RPI rankings and isn’t expected to make the playoffs.