By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
As a roller coaster of a spring baseball season winds to a close this week, the four Adams County baseball squads now know where their seasons will pick up again for the postseason. On Sunday, May 8, the Southeast District Athletic Board released the sectional tournament brackets for Division III and IV and sectional play will begin this weekend.
The coaches do the voting for sectional seeds, using the super sectional format, and the records shown at the draw may not be up-to-date since games may have been played since tourney information had to be turned in.
In Division III, Coach Rob Meade’s North Adams Green Devils have suffered the growing pains of a young team this spring and their 5-10 record at the draw earned the Devils the #21 seed. With that, the Devils will be on the road for their first -round sectional contest, traveling to #12 seeded Piketon (8-11) on Monday, May 16. If the North Adams nine can pull off the win, they will advance to the sectional finals, facing the winner of #5 seed Wellston (15-3) and #28 seed Coal Grove (6-16). That sectional final would be on the higher seed’s field on May 19.
“The draw ended up about like I expected for us,” said Coach Meade. “I suspected we would be somewhere around the 20th seed.”
Also in Division III, Coach Joe Kramer and the West Union Dragons (1-11) will be the #29 seed, meaning they will face a tough road in the first round of the sectional, traveling to #4 seeded Minford (13-5). If the Dragons pull off the big upset,they would move to the sectional title game, facing the winner of #13 seeded Oak Hill (9-11) and #20 seed Southeastern (5-11).
In Division IV, the Manchester Greyhounds and Coach Josh Reaves have had a successful spring and hope to follow that up with a postseason run, but that is not going to be easy. Perhaps getting some disrespect from the voters, the 11-3 Greyhounds are the #8 seed and will automatically find themselves in a sectional title game on their home field. The Hounds will host #9 seeded Racine Southern on Tuesday, May 17 at 5 p.m. with a trip to the district tournament on the line. The district semi-finals game will be at Paint Stadium in Chillicothe at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 21, with the likely opponent being #1 seeded Lucasville Valley (14-1), a team that has spent time this season ranked #1 in the Division III state poll.
The super sectional format is not popular with many, and Coach Reaves wasn’t totally thrilled with where his team was placed.
“Honestly, I think we got put there because everyone wanted to avoid us,” said Reaves. “We got placed by our record and not by our talent.”
Finally, in Division IV, Coach Kenny Dick and his Peebles Indians (7-7) are the # 16 seed and will have a home sectional semi-final game on Saturday, May 14, where they will host the #17 seeded Green Bobcats (6-15) in a noon first pitch. If the Indians survive that first round contest, they face the same situation that their counterparts in Manchester will, a match up with #1 seed Lucasville Valley. That action would take place on Tuesday, May 17 in Lucasville. If the Indians come pull off an upset across the street from the prison, it would set up an all-Adams County match up in the district semis.
The complete baseball sectional/district brackets can be found at https://www.ohsaa.org/Southeast-Sports-Tournaments/Baseball.
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