The 1a/2a state baseball tournaments open up today at Dozer Park in Peoria. The first 1a semifinal will start at 10am and feature 27-4 Brown County against 31-3 Ottawa Marquette. Brown County and coach Jared Hoots are making the school’s first ever trip to state, while Ottawa is making their 4th ever trip, including their 3rd since 2018. They won the state championship in 2019.
Then the North Clay Cardinals and coach John Frech make their first ever trip to the State Final Four at 31-6 when they take on LeRoy who comes in at 24-9. The Cardinals have been battle tested and come in winning 5 in a row and 8 of their last 9 including wins in the post season over defending state champion South Central as well as Windsor/Stew-Stras and Steeleville. They take on LeRoy who is also making their first ever state semifinal appearance.
The 2a state semifinals begin at 3pm with 31-5 Richmond Burton against 32-1 Maroa Forsyth. Maroa enters having won their first 21 games of the season before their lone loss to Mahomet Seymour, before reeling off 11 straight heading into today’s game. This is Maroa’s 5th trip to state and first since 1995. Burton is making just their 2nd trip to state having lost their only game in 2006.
The Columbia Eagles will take their 26-7 record up against 21-11 Joliet Catholic. Columbia knocked off defending 2a state champ and conference rival Freeburg in the Super Sectional to advance to the school’s 4th state appearance having won the state championship in 1987 and 2007 and finishing 4th in 2006. Joliet has a long, rich tournament history having made the state tournament 12 times, the latest a trip in 2013 when they won the school’s 3rd state championship having finished 2nd 3 more times.
