When the dust cleared after Super Tuesday, nothing had changed –– well at least nothing at the front of the race for the top seed in the Interscholastic League Division I baseball tournament.

When the week started, undefeated Portsmouth was leading the 28-team race for the top spot. But on Monday afternoon, Lincoln handed Portsmouth its first loss of the season when the Lions took advantage of six Portsmouth errors en route to a 6-2 victory. .

The loss dropped Portsmouth back into a virtual tie with Hendricken and South Kingstown for the top spot in the seeding battle, all with one loss.

But the following day was Super Tuesday –– the day that featured several top Division matchups –– and when all the results were finally tabulated, Portsmouth was back in front of the pack by itself.

On Aquidneck Island on Tuesday, Portsmouth, sparked by Ryan Westmoreland’s one-hit pitching effort and a 15-hit attack, quickly recovered from the loss to Lincoln and rolled to a 14-0 victory over Moses Brown.

But while Portsmouth was improving its record to 13-1 Tuesday afternoon, Hendricken and South Kingstown were suffering their second RIIL losses of the season. In Cranston, a run in the bottom of the seventh inning gave Cranston West, the two-time defending state champion, a 4-3 victory over Hendricken; while in South Kingstown, North Kingstown pitcher Mark Medeiros limited South Kingstown to one run as the Skippers posted a 3-1 victory over their South County rival.

So going into yesterday afternoon’s action, Portsmouth was back in front of the pack with only one league loss, while Hendricken, Cranston West and South Kingstown were a game off the pace in the loss column.

Rain lets up

Fortunately, the rain stopped early enough yesterday that most of the 16 games on the schedule were played.

With only eight days remaining before the end to the regular season next Friday, the last thing Division I teams needed was to try to reschedule more games over those final eight days. Most Division I teams already have three games scheduled next week and several teams are also scheduled to play tomorrow for what will be their third games this week.

The four, six-team Division I double-elimination regional playoff tournaments are scheduled to begin May 20.

Division II has a little more time, if needed for makeups because the division’s two, six-team double-elimination playoff tournaments are not scheduled to begin until May 22.

Lincoln could be top seed

Lincoln may have only the sixth-best overall record in Division I going into yesterday’s action, but the Lions are in good position to be the top-seeded team in one of the four regional playoff tournaments.

Under league rules, regardless of overall records, the top seeds for the four regional tournaments will go to the four regular-season champions in the four Division I subdivisions. The order of those four top seeds will be determined by the overall records of the four regular-season champions.

Victories over Portsmouth on Monday and St. Raphael on Tuesday pushed Lincoln’s record to 11-4 and gave the Lions sole possession of the Division I-North lead after a 4-3 loss to North Providence on Tuesday dropped La Salle’s record to 8-5.

La Salle’s only hope of overtaking Lincoln for the top-four seed that will go to the I-North champion is that the Rams win all five or their remaining games (including yesterday), and that Lincoln loses two of its three remaining games (including yesterday). Even if La Salle pulls even with the Lions by the end of the regular season, Lincoln will earn the I-North top seed because the Lions won both of their regular-season games against the Rams.

Mt. Hope win would clinch

Mt. Hope can clinch, at least a Division II-East regular-season co-championship, with a victory over Central Falls today. The Huskies, now 12-2, go into today’s game with a three-game lead over Tolman and four games remaining, including today’s contest.

Advantage Prout

Prout’s 11-8 victory over Central on Monday gives the Crusaders the upper hand in the race for the II-South regular-season title. Prout now has a two-game lead over Central and a one-game advantage over Exeter-West Greenwich. But the Crusaders still have another big game with Central today before hosting Exeter-West Greenwich on Monday.

jgillool@projo.com