The seedings are exactly the same in both the 13th District softball and baseball tournaments. As a result, unfortunately, teams from a school will be forced to play at the same times, making fans choose between watching their boys or their girls team.
In both tournaments, Logan County’s defending district champions will be the top seeds. The order that follows them is Franklin-Simpson second, Russellville third and Todd Central fourth.
The tournaments are scheduled to be played Monday, May 22, and Tuesday, May 23. All games will be at Russellville High School.
In the softball tournament, Coach Brandy Trimble’s Lady Cougars (5-1 district, 11-9 overall) will meet Todd (0-6. 4-16) at 5:30 p.m. that Monday. In the nightcap, F-S (5-1, 14-12) will face Coach Calvin Head’s Lady Panthers (2-4, 4-13-1) in a game expected to begin about 7 p.m.
Logan and Franklin split two wins in the regular season, but LCHS is the top seed because the Lady Cougars won over Coach Todd Caudill’s Lady Cats 13-2 April 25 after losing to them 3-0 early in the season. Margin of victory (11-3) was the tiebreaker.
Russellville has beaten Coach James Rundle’s Lady Rebels soundly twice, by scores of 13-2 and 16-6.
The championship game is scheduled for 5:30 on Tuesday, May 23.
Kelly Russell Field will be the site of the baseball tournament the same evenings.
It begins that Monday 30 minutes earlier at 5 p.m. when Coach Ethan Meguiar’s Cougars (6-0 district, 19-7 overall) take on Coach Billy Killebrew’s Rebels (0-6, 2-18). The Cougars have beaten Todd 25-0 in 10 innings so far this season on back-to-back days.
Franklin has the region’s best record at 20-5 overall, but Coach Kurt Gammons’ team is just 4-2 in the district because the Wildcats have managed only one run off Cougar star pitcher Ethan Smock in 14 innings. Logan won the two games 6-0 and 3-1.
The Cougars have scored a region-best 213 runs this season, 21 more than second place South Warren and 36 more than Franklin, but the Wildcats are giving up just 2.6 runs per game while Logan has allowed almost four runs an outing. In that 6-0 win, Logan scored the most runs the Cats have given up in all but one game. Warren East beat the Cats 8-7 for the highest total.
The Russellville-Franklin game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 on that Monday. F-S struggled against Panther star Jordan Blick on April 18 before winning 2-1. The Wildcats won their second meeting last week 11-3. Blick didn’t pitch that one.
The baseball championship game is scheduled to start at 6 on Tuesday, May 23.
Tickets to tournament sessions are $6 each.
Rain dates are that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
If you forget when games are to be played, check out the schedule on the Roy’s Sports Calendar on The LoJo.