Tiger baseball draws No. 1 seed at State

Fort Scott High School's baseball team was awarded the No. 1 seed Friday morning and will face eight-seeded Andover Central in the first round of the Kansas Class 4A-Division I State Baseball Tournanent at 11 a.m. Thursday.

The Tigers and the Andale/Garden Plain co-op program have the same record, 19-3, but Fort Scott was awarded the higher seed. Andover Central, meanwhile, was one of four teams with a 15-7 record and the Jaguars got the short end of the stick, so to speak.

Paola, also 15-7, drew the No. 5 seed and will play fourth-seeded defending champion Topeka Hayden, 16-6, at 1:30 Thursday. Hayden is the only Class 4A school in the mostly 6A/5A Centennial League.

Andale/Garden Plain will play Rose Hill at 4 p.m. Thursday. Finally No. 3 seed DeSoto, 17-4, will face No. 6 Tonganoxie at 6:30.

If Fort Scott wins its first-round game, the Tigers will face the Paola-Hayden winner at 11 a.m. Friday in the first semifinal contest. Fans of the Tiger baseball and softball who want to follow both teams at State should note that if the softball teams wins its first-roiund game, it will also be playing a semifinal at 11 a.m. The third-place game in the softball tournament will be at 1 p.m. on the secondary field with the championship to take place at 2 p.m. on the primary field.

The winners of the Rose Hill-Andale/Garden Plain and Tonganoxie-DeSoto games will face off at 1:30 Friday. The third-place game will be held at 4 p.m. with the championship game to follow at 6:30.

Fort Scott advanced to State with wins over Chanute and Coffeyville in the Independence Class 4A-Division I Regional Tournament Thursday night. The Tigers beat Chanute 14-4 in the semifinals and Coffeyville 12-3 in the championship. It will be the Tigers' first State appearance since 2010, when they lost in the first round to eventual State champion Kansas City Bishop Ward.

Andover Central was the No. 1 seed in the El Dorado Regional and won both its games by a combined total of 25-0. The Jaguars beat Towanda-Circle in the first round, 10-0, and El Dorado in the finals, 15-0.

Andale/Garden Plain was the top seed at Ulysses and beat McPherson, 10-0, in the opener and Ulysses, 11-1, in the championship game.

Hayden was the No. 1 seed in its own Regional and beat Clay Center/Wakefield, 15-0, in the first round and Wamego, 9-2, in the finals.

DeSoto, which finished fourth here last year, defeated Bonner Springs, 5-4, in the first round and host Bishop Miege, 1-0, in the finals of the Miege Regional. The Wildcats were the No. 1 seed.

Paola, which split with Fort Scott at Lions Field on April 28, was the No. 2 seed at Ottawa. The Panthers beat Spring Hill, 10-4, in the first round and topped fourth-seeded Ottawa, 13-3, in the final.

Paola was 8-3 following the split with the Tigers. At the time they met, The Panthers were ranked No. 2 in Class 4A-Division I while the Tigers were ranked third. But following the doubleheader, Paola went just 5-4 for the remainder of the regular season.

Tonganoxie was the No. 1 seed in its home Regional. The Chieftains got by Kansas City-Piper, 4-3, in the semifinals and needed nine innings to beat third-seeded Basehor-Linwood in the finals, 2-1.

Rose Hill was the No. 2 seed at Winfield. The Rockets beat Mulvane, 8-0, in the first round and host Winfield, the top seed, 7-6 in eight innings in the finals.

Six of the eight qualifiers were the top seed in their Regional while the other two were the No. 2 seed. This constrasts greatly with the State softball tourney, which has only two teams that were top seeds in their Regionals.

Hayden defeated Iola, 6-4, in last year's final while Towanda-Circle beat DeSoto, 11-9, for third place. Iola advanced to State last year by beating the Tigers in the Regional final.

The only past champs in the field are Hayden, which also won Class 4A in 2001 and 2009, and Rose Hill, which claimed the Class B title in 1947, the first year the sport was split into two classes.

This will be Fort Scott's eighth appearance in a State Tournament. The Tigers qualified in Class 5A in 1991, 1998, 2000, and 2001, finishing second in 1998 and fourth in 1991 and 2001. In three State appearances as a Class 4A school (2005, 2007, 2010), the Tigers have yet to win a game. This will be the third time Fort Scott has been the top seed (1998, 2001).

Class 4A-Division I is considered a continuation of the single-division Class 4A by the KSHSAA while Class 4A-II is considered a new class.

The State tournaments in all classes in both softball and baseball switched to a Thursday-Friday schedule two years ago.