Linden-Kildare vs. Carlisle

SITE, TIME: Best-of-three series, Game 1 is at 6 p.m. today at Henderson High School, Game 2 is at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Jacksonville High School with a Game 3, if needed, to follow.

AT STAKE: Class 2A area championship.

LAST ROUND: LindenKildare run-ruled Campbell in a single-game elimination, 20-0.

LINEUP: P-Trent Wert, C-Traccer Henry, 1B-Loy Taylor, 2B-Deuce Schuler, 3B-Nic Kunze, SS-Dalton Alford, LF-Caleb Cunningham, CF-Marty Johnson, RF-Jacob Owen.

COACH’S COMMENTS: Linden-Kildare’s John Roberts—“We’re still debating if we’re going to make any changes or not. Offensively, we pretty much have our identity and that won’t change a bunch. Defensively, we may change a few alignments based on what we know about a few of their hitters. What it boils down to is our pitchers hitting their spots or none of that stuff matters anyways.”

“Well, the biggest thing about this week is that we have more games to play. Last week, it was a one-game series and we had no room for any mistakes. Not that we have any room for mistakes, but we know we will have another game if something happens in the first game. It allows you to make pitching and substitution changes that you wouldn’t normally make with just one game.”

NEXT ROUND: The winner advances to face either Carlisle or James Bowie in the regional quaterfinals.

MAUD vs. UNION GROVE

SITE, TIME: Best-ofthree series, all games are at Paris Chisum High School. Games 1 and 2 will be played as a doubleheader on Friday, starting at 5 p.m., and a Game 3, if needed, will be on Saturday at 11 a.m.

AT STAKE: Class 2A regional quarterfinal championship.

LAST ROUND: Maud dropped its first game, but then rolled past Big Sandy, 3-8, 18-5, 12-8. Union Grove got past North Hopkins, 4-2, 4-1.

MAUD LINEUP: P-Cade Townsend, C- Payton Windham, 1B-Cameron Mills, 2B-Hunter Thomas, 3B-Rayne Bailey, SS-Gage Jones, LF-Josh Luther, CF-Brooks Minter, RF-Adam Roberts.

COACH’S COMMENTS: Maud’s Joel Windham—“I haven’t had an opportunity to watch Union Grove. I saw them early on in the season, and they have a couple of pitchers that are really good. They play good defense, are hard working, and they are a lot like us.

“We proved that we could grind it out and find a way to win last weekend, but this weekend we have to sharpen up some things that didn’t look so good last weekend. We have to polish up our defense, and do better in the count when we are batting. We chased some pitches with a 2-0 count, so we are going to be more selective with our hitting this week.

“We have to keep hitting well. For the most part, we’ve hit good all season. Our kids need to continue to stay focused on base running and offense.”

NEXT ROUND: The winner advances to the regional semifinals to play either Douglass or Gary.