The route to a state baseball championship has been laid out for Iola and Crest high schools.
Iola will open the Class 4A State Baseball Tournament at 1:15 p.m. Thursday in Salina as the fourth seed in the eight-team field.
Iola (16-4) will take on fifth seed Ottawa (15-6) at Salina’s Dean Evans Stadium.
A win there would put the Mustangs in the semifinals against either top seed McPherson (20-2) or eighth seed El Dorado (10-12) at 11 a.m. Friday in the state semifinals. A second win would put Iola in the championship game Friday afternoon at 5:45 against one of four opponents: No. 2 seed Tonganoxie) (18-3), No. 3 Clay Center Community/Wakfield (16-4), No. 6 Paola (14-7) or No. 7 Abilene (13-8).
CREST (23-0) is the only unbeaten team in the state, and the top seed in the Class 2-1A Tournament, which begins Thursday at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
The Lancers are the top seed in the bracket and will take on eighth seed Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan at 11 a.m.
A win there would put the Lancers in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday against either No. 4 Elkhart (19-4) or No. 5 Little River (18-5).
Other teams in the 2-1A bracket are Mission Valley (20-1), Valley Falls (19-3), West Elk (17-6) and Whitewater-Remington (15-8).
A win in the opening round for all state tournaments guarantees teams two more games, regardless of how they fare in the semifinals. The semifinal losers will face off in the third-place game Friday prior to the championship, likely around 3:30 p.m.
Tickets sell for $9 for adults and $6 for students and can be purchased online at kshsaa.org.
