- May 18, 2025
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The high school baseball season had a unique twist this year.
The Florida High School Athletic Association made a switch to a best-of-three series for its regional round of postseason competition, and it has more layers to it than meets the eye at first glance.
I’ve asked some area coaches about their thoughts on the new format, and most I’ve talked to are in favor of it.
However, I hold a different opinion.
Before we get into my perspective, it’s worth pointing out the merits of a three-game series format.
For years, teams with a dominant ace pitcher could use him nearly every step of the way throughout the postseason.
That’s no longer an option with a three-game series, and it brings in an intriguing level of strategy as to when coaches use which pitchers.
“It forces you to have depth in your pitching staff with starters and relievers,” Sarasota baseball coach Greg Mulhollen said. “Like when we were up at George Jenkins, we were fortunate to win Game 1, but in our Game 2 we had to make decisions of this guy or that guy in certain matchups with the possibility of a Game 3 to be played. There’s a lot of strategy and chess pieces to be moved to get through a high school series. We really enjoyed it.”
Another element of the strategy is when teams use their ace. A team could start their ace in Game 1, or save them for what could become a must-win Game 2.
Baseball is about more than one pitcher, and a best-of-three series ensures that one player isn’t deciding the fate of an entire team.
There’s also the fact of the matter that even the best teams in the state can have an off day, and this new format makes it more likely that the most talented teams will be playing for state championships.
But is that for the best?
March Madness is one of the most beloved tournaments in all of sports because underdogs have a chance to dethrone the blue blood programs.
That’s been the case in high school baseball until this year.
Take the case of Sarasota, for instance. The Sailors are a storied program winning eight state championships, but they faced a brutally difficult path this year.
Venice, the No. 4 overall team in Florida, is in its region. If the Sailors were to advance past regionals, they would have had to face the Indians twice at their home field and beat them twice.
While that’s not an impossible task, it makes for a less intriguing postseason for many regions featuring top-ranked teams.
“You may get lucky in one of those three games, but you still would have to beat them again, and some of these regions have absolute powerhouses,” Cardinal Mooney coach Mike Mercurio said. “It doesn’t allow for the wow factor of an underdog team to have a really good game and show they can compete with anyone.”
Not only does this make for less interesting regional playoff outcomes but also individual games. Every game in the series matters, but the first game does not decide either team’s season.
Mercurio said he noticed some of the regional games he coached in weren’t as well attended as past years.
“There were some people who would come to Game 1 and then wouldn’t come to Game 2 or vice versa because they weren’t clinching games,” he said. “I don’t think the attendance was there.”
To top it off, the state semifinal and state championship rounds are still single-game elimination. That’s because adding that many games at a neutral site — Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers this year — would be a logistical nightmare, but it makes for an unusual path to a state title.
Despite my gripe against the new regional playoffs, the change hasn’t tipped the scales of power much this year.
As of the start of the regional final round of competition, 21 of the 28 No. 1 seeds from Classes 1A-7A are still playing compared to 19 last year, and there are 22 teams seeded third or lower still alive compared to 24 last year.
Only time will tell if this format results in fewer state championships for less heralded schools, but it’s not going to make it any easier for them.
