With a region tournament field head Post 18 baseball coach Kent VanOverschelde calls "wide open", the third-year head coach of Mitchell's Legion ball club hopes the team's past postseason experience, namely a state high school baseball title just a few months ago, will pay dividends when the region tournament opens Thursday at Harmodon Field.
Post 18 opens Region 2A play with Sioux Falls West in the tournament's opening game at noon.
"It's a wide-open tournament," VanOverschelde said. "Our region in itself is a mini-state tournament. You're going to have to earn your way in."
If Post 18 hopes to advance to next week's state tournament, it will do so without its staff ace, Cory Marek. Marek has a sore throwing shoulder and is done for the rest of the summer, but will be ready for the start of the college season, where he will play at Dakota Wesleyan next season.
But the team has been without Marek for the past few weeks and VanOverschelde hopes, Post 18 has been able to find the players to help fill the void.
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"We just basically have to rally behind him," he said. "We need someone to step up and fill his role and be a presence. We've been able to hopefully put our lineup in a situation where we can be successful."
Post 18 has played West once this year, losing 10-4 on June 29 at Cadwell Park.
On Thursday, Trever Vermeulen will get the start on the mound.
"We're confident with Vermeulen going 100 pitches or 106, somewhere in there," said VanOverschelde. "If he gets into that eighth inning without throwing 100 pitches, that's going to be great for us. From there, it's just determining where we're at."
VanOverschelde still has plenty of arms left to get through the rest of the tournament and was happy with the return of Brett Young on the mound at last weekend's Marshall Tubbs Invitational in Rapid City. Young had been out with a sprained wrist.
With Young's return, that also sets Post 18 up defensively as he is the every-day third baseman when he's not pitching.
Thursday, Young will be at third, Jason Schmidt at short, Mike Larson at second, Trevor Salmonson at first, Kirby Oldenkamp in left, Beau Van Overschelde in center and Nick Wenande in right, along with the battery of Vermeulen and Josh Wenande.
Schmidt, is leading the team at the plate, hitting .406 on the year, followed by Josh Wenande at .320. VanOverSchelde said the rest of the team all is hovering around the .300 mark.
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If Mitchell wins its first-round game Thursday, it turns right around and takes on Sioux Falls East later that day at 7:30 p.m. If Post 18 falls in the first game, they will play the loser of the Yankton-Valley Springs game at noon Friday.
"Yankton probably has the bats to get them through and Valley Springs is just scrappy enough to find a way," VanOverSchelde said. "And we fall right in there as well. We have the talent to win it and we have the experience, too. That has to be a factor as far as that goes."
