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Baseball: What if Diamond Classic was seeded?

Diamond Classic tournament director Joe Hartmann is adamantly against any and all proposals to seed his namesake tournament.

The bracket for the 16-team, single-elimination tournament that starts Saturday and concludes May 21 -- weather permitting -- is pre-determined every year.

Teams are just plugged in based on the terms under which they were invited to join the field -- the Colonial Liberty automatic qualifer goes here, the No. 2 at-large team goes here, and so forth.

And that format rotates every year.

Hartmann believes that makes the tournament fair for every team and gives the less powerful programs a better chance to win a game or two.

If the Diamond Classic was seeded this year, what would the brackets look like?

Maybe something like this:

1. Gloucester Catholic

vs.

16. Maple Shade

8. Hammonton

vs.

9. Holy Spirit (ironically, that's a first round game anyway).

12. Haddonfield

vs.

5. Bishop Eustace

4. Washington Twp.

vs.

13. Haddon Heights

That's the top bracket.

The bottom bracket:

3. Shawnee

vs.

14. St. Joseph

11. Vineland

vs.

6. St. Augustine

10. Cherry Hill West

vs.

7. Audubon

15. Cinnaminson

vs.

2. Eastern

Is that a better tournament?

Maybe. It's got the potential for some great quarterfinals -- Bishop Eustace vs. Washington Twp.,  Shawnee vs. St. Augustine, Audubon vs. Eastern.

That's assuming form held in the first round, no sure thing in any sport and especially not this one.

Going a step futher, semifinals featuring GC vs. BE and/or WT and Shawnee vs. Eastern (in round 3 this season) would be games to watch.

And if No. 1 and No. 2 still were standing on the evening of May 21, it would be GC vs. Eastern in a rematch of the title game won by the Vikings last season.

This imaginary tournament with teams seeded 1-16 looks pretty good on paper.

But the guess here is that real one that starts Saturday will look good on the field, too.

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com

-- Follow @PhilAnastasia on Twitter

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