Staff report

The NCHSAA will announce the seeds and first-round pairings for the softball and baseball state playoffs on Monday.

The playoffs will start on Tuesday with the better seeded teams playing at home.

East Rowan, Lake Norman Charter and Carson were the South Piedmont Conference’s three automatic qualifiers for the 3A baseball playoffs.

With a late-season skid, West Rowan dropped to 17th in the 3A West RPI rankings. The Falcons still will be in the playoffs as an at-large team, but they may be on the road for the first round.

Northwest Cabarrus (No. 30), South Rowan (No. 31) and Robinson (No. 33) will see how things shake out today.

It’s a 32-team 3A West bracket.

Complications for South are the likelihood of one or two low-RPI teams that will get automatic bids as conference qualifiers from the 2A/3A and 3A/4A split leagues. If you’re the 3A team with the best conference record in a split league, you’re in the 3A playoffs, regardless of your record.

Robinson is another potential complication. With the NCHSAA’s leapfrog provision, South can’t get in the playoffs ahead of Robinson, as Robinson swept South and tied with South in the SPC standings. Northwest has no leapfrog complications.

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In the softball world, East Rowan, Central Cabarrus and West Rowan were automatic qualifiers for the 3A playoffs.

Northwest Cabarrus (No. 26) should be in the bracket with no problem, and South Rowan (No. 29) looks like a good bet to be in the bracket.

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The season appears to be over for the Salisbury and North Rowan baseball and softball squads.