Items from amateur and American Legion baseball:
Region 13C
Jackson is seeded second for the Region 13C amateur baseball playoffs that get underway this week with six of the 11 teams involved in the league playoff round. The top five seeds have the week off and are seeded into the region tournament.
Jackson won the First Nite League title. The Bulls and Fairmont were both 12-3 in league play but Jackson won both head-to-head meetings.
Here’s how the teams were seeded:
1. Luverne Redbirds 12-2
2. Jackson Bulls 12-3
3. Fairmont Martins 12-3
4. Milroy Irish 10-4
5. Windom Pirates 11-4
6. Hadley Buttermakers 7-7
7. Pipestone A’s 4-10
8. Lakefield Frogs 5-10
9. Fox Lake Foxes 4-11
10. Worthington Cubs 2-12
11. Heron Lake Lakers 2-13
League playoff round
Best-of-three
Starts Wednesday, July 17
6 Hadley vs. 11 Heron Lake
7 Pipestone vs. 10 Worthington
8 Lakefield vs. 9 Fox Lake
The schedules will be finalized Monday night.
Different look
This will apparently be the final Region 13C tournament as amateur baseball classifications will look a little different in 2025.
The Minnesota Baseball Association designed a system of criteria points to split its teams into three classifications.
There currently is no Class A for amateur baseball, only Class B and Class C. In 2023, teams that were Class A at the time were brought into Class B.
The criteria system utilizes these elements:
City population/school enrollment
Player level experience (professional, different levels of college baseball)
Postseason success for the last five years
Under the first/rough draft of the 2025 classes, two of the current Region 13C teams would play in Class B, while the remainder would play in Class C.
Teams that would want to opt up a class would need to make their request by the November meeting of the MBA board.
Teams may move up or down classes based on new criteria numbers based on roster changes and postseason success. Teams no longer must stay in a class for two years but must petition at a regular MBA meeting to be granted the move in classification.
Under the current proposal, there would be 60 teams in Class A (24 in the state tournament), 70 in Class B (24 in the state tournament) and 146 in Class C (32 in the state tournament).
Here are the proposed region/district assignments for the current Region 13C teams. Ruthton does not have a team this season.
Region 10C
10 teams, 2 tourney bids
Fox Lake Foxes
Hadley Buttermakers
Heron Lake Lakers
Jackson Bulls
Lakefield Frogs
Milroy Irish
Pipestone A’s
Ruthton Royals
Windom Pirates
Worthington Cubs
District 8B
6 teams, 3 tourney bids
Bird Island Bullfrogs
Fairmont Martins
Luverne Redbirds
New Ulm Brewers
Raymond Rockets
Willmar Raildogs
Legion sub-state
The Division II Southwest Sub-State American Legion baseball tournament will be held at Redbird Field in Luverne.
Play in the eight-team double elimination event will be held July 18-20 and July 26-27.
The champion advances to the state Division II tournament Aug. 2-4 in Bird Island. Sleepy Eye is the defending state champion.
Thursday’s first-round pairings:
Sleepy Eye vs. Windom, 11 a.m.
St. James vs. Minneota, 2 p.m.
Springfield vs. Mankato, 5 p.m.
Wabasso vs. Luverne, 8 p.m.
Division I sub-state tournaments start next week, with their state tournament Aug. 1-4 in Osseo and Maple Grove.