Conference Tournaments Get Underway Thursday

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

As a sign that the spring high school baseball season is rapidly advancing (unfortunately, faster than the thermometer), twenty-eight teams will take the field this weekend to compete in three conference tournaments. 

The Big Daddy of the weekend is the sixteen-team Metro Conference Tournament which begins tomorrow with eight first-round games at four locations.  Weather permitting, the tournament's nineteen scheduled games will be played over the course of three days --  Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Due to rain, last year's Tournament Championship game was played almost a week after the semifinals.  This year's number one seed, the Westside Warriors, are the defending champs, having defeated Millard West last year to earn the crown. 

The sixteen teams were seeded and paired Monday morning using NSAA Wild Card Points for games played through Saturday, April 11.  The four top seeds are the Warriors, #2 Creighton Prep, #3 Papillion LaVista South and #4 Millard West.  Each of the top seeds is in a different bracket of four teams that will play at Westside, Millard South, Fricke Field in Papillion and Roddy Field in Bellevue, respectively.   Thursday's opening round games are as follows:

At Westside High School
3:30 #1 Westside vs. #16 Omaha South
5:45 #8 Omaha Burke vs. #5 Millard North

At Millard South High School
3:30 #4 Millard West vs. #13 Omaha North
5:45 #5 Millard South vs. #12 Central

At E.A. Fricke Field, Papillion
3:30 #3 Papio South vs. #14 Omaha Northwest
5:45 Papillion LaVista vs. #11 Bellevue West

At Roddy Field, Bellevue East High School
3:30 #2 Creighton Prep vs. #15 Benson
5:45 #7 Omaha Bryan vs. #10 Bellevue East

Losers of Thursday's games will be paired up at their respective sites in consolation games to be played Friday at 5:00.  Tournament action for Thursday's losers concludes with those consolation games.  Thursday's winners advance to quarterfinals Thursday night at 8:00 at each site.  The four quarterfinals winners move on to semifinals at Westside and Fricke Friday night at 8:00 with the semifinals winners meeting in Saturday afternoon's 1:00 Championship Game at Fricke. 

| Metro Conference Tournament Bracket |

The seven-team Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament will be played in Lincoln Thursday through Saturday.  The tournament is hosted by defending champion Lincoln North Star, who comes into the tournament as the #4 seed this year.  Other teams include #1 seed Southwest, #2 Southeast, #3 Grand Island, #5 East, #6 Lincoln High and #7 Northeast.  Southwest has an opening round bye as the rest of the teams will see action on Thursday as follows:

At Den Hartog
5:00 #5 Lincoln East vs. #4 Lincoln North Star

At Sherman Field
5:00 #3 Grand Island vs. #6 Lincoln High
7:00 # 7 Northeast vs. # 2 Southeast
 

The losers of Thursday's games will be done for the weekend.  The East vs. North Star winner will advance to play Southwest Friday at 5:00 in one semifinal with the winners of the other two games (GI vs. LHS and LNE vs. LSE) playing in the other semifinal to follow at 7:00.  Friday's winners play the Championship game at 3:00 at Sherman which follows a consolation game between Friday's losers at 1:00. 

| HAC Tournament Bracket |

The inaugural six-team Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament has been made possible by the recent addition of spring baseball at Blair (2007), Norris (2008) and Waverly (2009).  Action in the two-day, single-elimination tourney will get started at 2:00 on Thursday at two locations in Elkhorn with four teams in action.  #4 seed Norris will play #5 Blair at Elkhorn Legion Field while #3 Gretna takes on #6 Waverly at Elkhorn High School.  Number two seed Nebraska City will play the Gretna - Waverly winner at 5:00 on Thursday, while #1 seed Elkhorn awaits the winner of Norris vs. Blair in a 7:30 Thursday evening game, with both games at Legion Field.  The winners of the semifinals will advance to the Championship Game to be played Friday evening at 6:00 at Legion Field. 
 

The question on the minds of most EMC fans is, "when will Nebraska City throw Logan Ehlers?"  Since the junior hurler threw seven innings against Bellevue West on Monday, the most likely answer is that he will be saved for a possible start in Friday's championship game if the Pioneers can get past the Gretna-Waverly winner Thursday evening without him. 

| EMC Tournament Bracket |

Tournament brackets will be updated as scores are reported from the various tournament locations.  Fans who want to help us keep up with the scores are invited to text scores to (402) 871-7244.  Just abbreviate the name of team, followed by score, such as:  "Elk 3, NC 2."  If the game is in progress, designate the inning, such as "T4" for top of the fourth.  If it's a final, put "F" after the score.