Sports

Legion team prepares for sections

By Tyler Ohmann

07/24/2012

The Bottineau legion baseball team heads into the section tournament having not played in more than a week, with some players having not played for more than two weeks.

The tournament, which is in Bottineau, begins on at 10 a.m., Wednesday.

“First round it looks like we’ll either play Surrey or Cando and both of them have good pitchers,” said Bottineau’s Mark LaCroix. “It is harder to make adjustments when you haven’t seen live pitching in over two weeks, especially against two quality teams like that.”

“You just prepare as hard as you can and see what you can do with it,” LaCroix added.

Bottineau, the third seed, opens against sixth-seeded Surrey at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, and LaCroix knows to not take any team for granted.

“I guarantee that at least six of these teams could win this tournament,” LaCroix said. “You have pitching, hitting and defense, and whoever puts it all together for three to five games is going to win this tournament.”

One potential advantage for Bottineau is having a full squad. Bottineau has had players gone for various camps and games in other sports throughout the season.

“At tournament we’re all here, we’re at full strength, and hopefully we’ll use that to our advantage,” LaCroix said.

When all is said and done, the winner of the tournament advances to the state tournament Aug. 1-5 in LaMoure, and LaCroix thinks they have a good shot.

“We went 10-4 on the season for a reason, and we’re one of the better teams, and we have a good chance at winning this thing,” LaCroix said.

The section tournament goes on through Saturday and is a double elimination tournament. The championship begins at 3 p.m., Saturday with a second game following if necessary.

Other first round match-ups include top-seeded Velva against New Rockford at 10 a.m., fourth-seeded Harvey against fifth-seeded Cando at 12:30 p.m. and second-seeded Rolette against the seven seed, Burlington at 3 p.m.

Four games will be played on Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. Three more will start at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, and the three or possibly four will be played on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.