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LAURA LEEOnly five Pinellas teams advanced, down from last season's eight.
Seminole, Countryside and Palm Harbor University all will make their sixth consecutive state playoff appearances this week.
No surprise there.
But what is unusual is that few county teams will accompany them.
This season just five teams from Pinellas County advanced to the region tournament, almost half the number the county sent in 2001 and 2000. Last season there were eight teams and seven the year before.
Surprisingly, perhaps, Boca Ciega and Tarpon Springs join the Warhawks, Cougars and Hurricanes in the postseason this year.
Boca Ciega hasn't been this far in five years, and the Spongers are making their second-ever appearance in the state tournament.
The biggest omission is that no private schools survived their districts.
St. Petersburg Catholic was on a three-year roll into regions before this season where the loss of a strong pitcher who also was a major source of offense, put the Barons on even ground with a lot of other teams.
Northside Christian lost a dominant ace as well and was the definition of rebuilding with nine freshmen.
But SPC coach Tom Fabian said there is more competition and it simply has gotten harder to get out of the district. This year he had to compete in a six-team district instead of the four-team districts of the past.
"I don't think teams are any weaker than they were before," Fabian said. "I think they were all better."
And for some teams, it just wasn't their year.
Osceola had made it three years straight. Though the Warriors returned strong seniors, they got knocked out in a district semifinal to the eventual district champion. Northeast ended its streak of seven consecutive playoff appearances by losing to Boca Ciega in the district tournament.
The Vikings were another team that with the graduation of a dominant pitcher, competition leveled out in the south. One week Northeast would win a game and lose to the same team the next. The end of the streak wasn't much of a shock, coach Holli Yates said.
"This was an awkward year with everything that went on," Yates said.