Private Blowout

Yeah, I definitely don't want to talk about that Celtics game.

Edward Little started their new field on the right note when Jayda Clark's RBI in the 10th inning broke a tie with Skowhegan.

Edward Little softball edges Skowhegan in 10 innings

Jayda Clark drives in the game-winning run for the Red Eddies in a Class A North showdown.

Centralmaine.comDave DyerStaff Writer

You probably saw this score on social media, which people were obviously very cool and chill about.

Regardless of the sport, people love to freak out over a blowout, especially if they didn't watch the game. And of course, almost no one watched the game before commenting on social media (to be fair, neither did I).

Part of this is the Cheverus of it all. People kind of lose their minds when private school is involved and has anything that even remotely resembles some sort of outsized success. But it's not like they've been blowing the doors off everyone all season. They're 4-0, but the other three games were close and they've yet to play a team that's currently ranked inside the top 30 in the Power Rankings.

Hell, they had to rally down 5-0 to beat Noble the next day.

Sure, the score gets people mad. You'll have that. But it's not like basketball where you can run the clock. People have to hit. You have to get people out.

Of course, the whole public vs private debate has been a thing for a while now. People get mad when a private school does well--how dare they!--but are silent when that same private school misses the playoffs entirely. I like to think of it as a variant of the enrollment question. Incredibly unfair when the big school wins, but conveniently ignored when they lose.

There has been a movement in a number of states to split out public and private schools into separate tournaments so the public schools don't have to compete with the privates. There was a protest in Nevada over a football powerhouse. And Pennsylvania has started the process of splitting out their private schools.

By a resounding margin of 178-23, the House passed Bill 41 that allows the PIAA to establish separate playoffs in Pennsylvania for boundary and non-boundary schools. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration and a possible vote. A Senate vote could potentially happen in June.

Boundary schools are public schools that can only take students from a defined geographic area. Non-boundary schools (Catholic, private and charter) can draw students from anywhere, even out of state. The boundary schools have complained for years that the non-boundary schools have an unfair advantage in sports, but the complaints have been more and louder in the past two decades since the PIAA took in the Philadelphia Catholic League and Public League teams.

State House passes bill that allows PIAA to conduct separate playoffs for public and private schools

The state House spoke loud and clear Wednesday on the high school sports issue of public vs. private, Catholic and charter schools. By a resounding margin…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I don't think this would work here. I don't think we have enough schools. But I'm sure it'll give people some ideas, or at least something to complain about on Facebook. And, really, that's the priority. Just no one tell them Cheverus was outscored 28-4 in their first 2 boys lacrosse games.

Elsewhere

Trent Goss tossed a complete game shutout in Bucksport's win over GSA...Emily Carroll's 3-run triple fueled GNG's win at Morse...Brewer's Sara Young tossed a 3-hitter against Bangor...Medomak's Sidney Nicholls struck out 11 Freeport batters in a 1-hitter...Messo overcame Cape in overtime in boys lacrosse...Matthew Hebert scored 4 runs and drove in 3 more as Sanford got their offense going...Tenny Tibbetts scored 9 goals as Cony blew out Houlton...Payton Maxon's 4 goals and 3 assists paced Wells against Lake Region.

Don't forget to put notable performances in the scoreboard.

This was a lovely thing to get in the mail this weekend.

The parents are once again acting up. Thankfully, this wasn't in Maine. You can tell by how many leaves are on all the trees already.

Anyway, don't be that guy.

Bangor is 5-1 on the early season with impressive wins over Edward Little and Messo, but stumbled at home against Mt. Ararat on Friday. In 6 games, they've already won by at least 13 runs three times and they're +51 already, or +8.5/game, 11th best in the state.

They'll head to Hampden for the first game in that rivalry.

Hampden started the season with a loss to what appears to be a dominant Oxford Hills team and have won three straight since then. The Broncos are only +2 on the season so far, thanks to Oxford Hills and the 2nd hardest Strength of Schedule in the state.

I'm assuming the Ticket will be streaming this one.

The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.