Baseball power rankings revisited

Now that we're a few weeks into the spring sports season, let's reset the balance of power among the top YAIAA baseball teams (Note, our preseason ranking and the team's current record is in parenthesis).

1. Spring Grove (1, 6-2): The Rockets' two losses currently bookend a six-game winning streak, which included a back-and-forth win against Northeastern. The victory optimized what Spring Grove coach Eric Zeigler likes about his team, and that's its base running. Spring Grove expected to produce with a veteran squad and, so far, it has done just that.

2. Red Lion (NR, 5-1): Perhaps a surprise, but maybe the Lions shouldn't be. A young Red Lion team last year pulled off big wins at home and continued that trend this year to open the season against West York. Junior Drew Landis, one of the top catchers in the state, has been a big reason for this Lions uproar. Just this week he was instrumental in a 10-1 win against South Western with a triple and home run.

3. Littlestown (4, 6-1): Like Spring Grove, the Thunderbolts have lived up to expectations early. It helps to have pitchers like Kai Hess and Ryan Kehr. But the Bolts are pretty good with the bats, too.

4. Delone Catholic (5, 6-0): The only unbeaten team left in the YAIAA has already had a big comeback to preserve that record through the first six games.

5. Dallastown (NR, 5-3): What a difference these two weeks made. The Wildcats' stock would have immediately fallen with their season-opening thumping by Mechanicsburg. Since then, they've had some impressive wins -- including victories over top-ranked Spring Grove and Red Lion.