PHOTO OF THE DAY: WALK ‘N CHALK

Dustin Tschetter chalks the left field line Sunday morning, July 6 in advance of a day of baseball at Merchants State Bank Field and the adjoining softball park. It’s Freeman’s turn to host an Independence Day celebration, and action will begin at noon with the first games of the day, as well as the opening of the amateur baseball team-operated chislic booth — always sponsored by Merchants State Bank. Tschetter, who restored youth baseball in Freeman 15 years ago and has built one of the best programs around, is the American Legion coach and will watch his Junior Legion 79ers take the field against Madison at 2 p.m., followed by the Senior Legion.

The Freeman Blacksox, meanwhile, are coming off a thrashing of Menno Saturday night in which they put up 17 runs on 21 hits to come away with a 17-7 win in seven innings by the mercy rule. The local town team will try to keep it going tonight against their tradition July 4 celebration opponent, Tabor. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m., with CorTrust’s fireworks show to follow at dark.