A week of upsets turned the area's baseball standings topsy-turvy, eventually landing John Carroll in the unexpected position of No. 1.

There were tremendous upsets: No. 4 Calvert Hall rocked No. 1 Gilman, 15-5, only to turn around and be pummeled by No. 6 John Carroll, 20-9.

No. 2 C. Milton Wright lost to No. 9 Fallston, which was beaten by unranked Patterson Mill, 12-3. No. 3 Severna Park lost to No. 10 Chesapeake-AA, 6-5 and needed an extra day to beat unranked Glen Burnie, 9-8.

It seemed that for each highly ranked team that won big, a mystifying upset followed.

The only one that reversed the order was John Carroll. The Patriots lost, 10-8, to St. Paul's, received a lecture from coach Joe Stetka about the need to focus and play their best, and responded with the big 20-9 victory over Calvert Hall.

The effort earned them the No. 1 ranking this week -- a result that nearly took Stetka's breath away.

"It's an honor," he said a few hours before sending his team on the field to face Gilman, the former No. 1 that now rests in the No. 3 spot. "Maybe this is what the kids need to step it up."

Stetka said he is not certain that John Carroll has ever been ranked No. 1 by The Sun.

"We haven't made the MIAA postseason tournament in 15 years," he said. "It has to be 22 or 23 years ago, if we were ever No. 1."

The primary reason for the jump to the top is the team's victory over Calvert Hall just after the Cardinals had beaten Gilman.

"We got up 20-1 on Cavert Hall at one point," Stetka said. "That's unheard of. But I've got a real good ballclub right now."

That day, senior pitcher Trent Shaw, 3-0 and already committed to the North Carolina-Ashville for next year, did what Stetka called "pitching backward."

"That's a real good baseball term," he said. "It means that instead of starting with his fastball, he used his breaking stuff and kept them off-balance throughout the game. Calvert Hall has great hitters throughout their lineup, but we were able to keep them off-guard."

John Carroll also got strong offense, with senior Brendan Butler (Towson) hitting two doubles and a homer for seven RBI, senior K.J. Hockaday (Maryland) driving in five runs with two homers and an extra-base hit, and Nick Naumann going 4-for-4.