OTHER POSTSEASON BASEBALL ACTION
American Legion baseball underway, amateur starts this week, 16u next week
VFW 14-and-under baseball isn’t the only postseason action taking place this month. On the contrary, there are several other local teams at other levels of play taking the field. Here’s a closer look, in order of appearance.
AMERICAN LEGION
The Post 152 79ers — a first-year baseball cooperative that includes players from Freeman, Menno and Scotland — were scheduled to take the field in the opening round of the South Dakota American Legion Senior Region 4B Tournament Tuesday evening, July 23.
The tournament is double elimination.
A win on Tuesday puts the 79ers in the semifinal round Thursday at 1 p.m. A loss moves them to an elimination game Wednesday at 4 p.m.
There were two other games scheduled for Tuesday.
Mt. Vernon/Plankinton/Corsica/Stickney was to face Tabor at 2 p.m., with the winner playing Parkston Tuesday night and the loser facing the loser of the 79ers/Wagner game.
Those who survive elimination on Wednesday will take the field Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., with the championship round scheduled for Friday, July 26 at 1 p.m. If the loser of Friday’s 1 p.m. game did not have a loss prior, a second winner-take-all game will follow.
The American Legion Senior Class B state tournament is in Salem Aug. 2-6.
AMATUER BASEBALL
Freeman and Menno will both take the field this week in the opening round of the South Central League District Amateur Tournament hosted by Lesterville.
The Blacksox are the No. 4 seed and will face No. 5 Wynot Thursday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m.
The Mad Frogs are the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3 Lesterville Friday, July 26 at 6 p.m. That game will be followed by No. 2 Crofton against No. 7 Irene.
The Freeman/Wynot winner will play No. 1 Tabor next Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m.
The winners of the Lesterville/Menno and Crofton/Irene game will play Tuesday, July 30 at 8 p.m.
A full bracket is posted at freemansd.com. Four of the seven South Central League teams will advance to state, which starts in Mitchell Aug. 7.
VFW 16U
At the South Dakota VFW baseball 16-and-under level, the Sticks — playing as Canistota/Freeman — will take part in the three-team Region 4B Tournament in Letcher starting this coming Monday, July 29.
Letcher will face Garretson at 3 p.m.
Canistota/Freeman will take on Garretson at 5 p.m.
Canistota/Freeman will then face Letcher at 7 p.m.
If a team goes 0-2 in pool play, that team is eliminated.
If all three teams have at least one win in pool play, the top seed will receive a bye on the second day of the tournament Tuesday, with the second and third seeds facing off at 3 p.m. The winner of that game will play the top seed at 5 p.m., with a second game — if necessary — scheduled for 7 p.m.
The winner advances to the 16U State Tournament hosted by Platte-Geddes.
The same format will be followed in Region 3B, where Scotland/Menno competes with Baltic and Canova. Scotland will host the games with the Trappers playing Baltic at 3 p.m. on Monday and Canova at 7 p.m.
The 16U State Tournament will be in Platte Aug. 9-11.
