Remember that the FHSAA will re-seed the Final Four brackets according to their Power Ranking system. Coming into Friday’s games, we had (based on the last published 4/15 rankings):

Vero Beach #1

Bartram Trail #2

Steinbrenner #3

St. Thomas Aquinas #4

Hagerty #5

Ponte Vedra #7

Newsome #9

Boca Raton #10

The first thing to notice is that we have the SAME FOUR SCHOOLS going on to the Final Four, although if the rankings don’t change (and based on the matchups and ranking gaps, they likely won’t), you will get a different pairing matchup.

2A – Region 1

Bartram Trail 12-6 over Ponte Vedra

Bartram pretty much repeats their regular season win over the Sharks, which was 13-8. The Bears are looking for the second state title and likely will play Steinbrenner in the semifinal.

2A – Region 2

Vero Beach 13-3 over Hagerty

Vero avenged the early season loss to Hagerty in surprisingly easy fashion and will likely retain the #1 seed going into next week.

2A – Region 3

Steinbrenner 14-9 over Newsome

Newsome led this game 8-6 early in the second half only to have the Warriors go on an 8-1 run to pull out the win. Someone must have heard my Celebration game note about bands being at the games . . .

They will likely face Bartram in the semifinal, and I believe that would be the first time they’ve met. Steinbrenner also played Ponte Vedra, coming away with a close win.

2A – Region 4

St. Thomas Aquinas 23-5 over Boca Raton

I keep harping on this, but it’s amazing how much under the radar the defending state champs are. The only minor flaw in re-seeding the teams for the Final Four is that we can only get a replay on last year’s amazing STA-Steinbrenner game is if both teams win.