CHARLESTON – It’s that time of year again for local baseball teams in Class 2, District 2 as they prepare for district tournament play at Hillhouse Park in Charleston for a chance to participate in the state tournament.
The Charleston Bluejays, who are the host team for the event, was given the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will be looking for their first district title in school history.
“We’re real excited to play at our place,” Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. “We feel like we’re playing really good baseball right now and we feel like playing at our place will give us an advantage. We’re looking for big things this year.”
The first step towards a district championship for the Bluejays will be against the No. 7 seed East Prairie Eagles. The Bluejays have already played the Eagles earlier in the season and Charleston came out on top rather easily winning 15-2.
Even though they took the win, coach Minner said they will not take their first opponent lightly.
“We’ve played them once already but, that was at the beginning of the year,” said Minner. “You don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re going to throw their best pitcher and your going to have to score at least one more run than them when the final whistle blows.”
If your looking for a dark horse throughout the tournament, the Kelly Hawks may be the pick as they stand as the No. 5 seed.
“I have high expectations for us,” Kelly head coach Nate Wills said. “I think we will be a tough team to beat if we can field the ball and get good pitching. It will come down to pitching and defense just like in any other big game situation.”
Kelly has a district record of 3-1 this season and has beaten the No. 2 seed Charleston as well as the No. 6 seed St. Vincent and Bell City. Both of whom has taken care of the No. 3 seed Chaffee.
The Hawks will take flight against the No. 4 seed Crystal City in their first test of the tournament.
“They have a couple of really good pitchers,” Wills said of Crystal City. “One kid I believe is averaging a little over 10 strikeouts a game and they have seven kids that is hitting above a .330 average or better. I expect it to be a very close game. If we can play good defense and get some timely hits we should be in good shape.”
All teams will be looking to knock off the No. 1 seed in the Scott City Rams as they have the best record in the district at 15-1.
The Chaffee Red Devils are a strong No. 3 seed as Woodland rounds out the bracket as the No. 8 seed.
