It's going to be a big and busy weekend at Wacker Field.
The Jackson Bulls will play their final two regular-season games and JCC's 15-under baseball team will play for a tournament championship.
Let's start with the Bulls.
They'll play a nonleague game at 5 p.m. Saturday vs. the Milroy Yankees of the Corn Belt League.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Jackson plays its final league game as the Adrian A's come to town.
Representatives from Next Era Energy Resources will be on hand to throw out the first pitch and they'll be presenting a sponsorship check.
A concession stand will be available and some other activities are being planned for what should be an enjoyable afternoon at the ballpark.
As is always the case in Jackson during the regular season, no admission will be charged.
That does change on Wednesday when the First Nite-Gopher League playoffs get underway.
The Bulls are in line for the No. 2 seed from the First Nite League, which would match them with the No. 7 seed from the Gopher League, which looks to be Tracy.
The playoff matchups are a best-of-three series. Game One is scheduled for Wednesday (July 21), Game Two Friday or Saturday (July 23-24) depending on the availability of lights and Game Three on Sunday (July 25).
Lakefield (10-7) and Fox Lake (10-10) are jockeying for the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds out of the First Nite League.
The Frogs are scheduled to host Windom Friday and play at Hadley on Sunday. At this stage, the Foxes are not scheduled to play this weekend.
It appears that Lakefield will not be able to reschedule games vs. Mountain Lake and Adrian and Fox Lake will not get in a scheduled game vs. Worthington.
Lakefield and Fox Lake have split their meetings this season.
Windom is 17-2 and will be the No. 1 seed out of the FNL.
The Pirates will also have a say in who is the top seed from the Gopher League.
Luverne leads the Gopher League with an 18-2 record, with the Milroy Irish a half-game back at 17-2. A win for the Irish over Windom on Sunday would put them in a tie for the top spot and Milroy does own the tiebreaker over the Redbirds.
It will all become official Sunday evening.
Weekend schedule
Friday
All games at 7:30 p.m.
Windom at Lakefield
Heron Lake at Ruthton
Worthington at Adrian
Hadley at Pipestone
Milroy Irish at Marshall
Saturday
Milroy Yankees at Jackson, 5 p.m.
Mountain Lake at Tracy, 2 p.m.
Sunday
Adrian at Jackson, 2 p.m.
Lakefield at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Tracy at Heron Lake, 2 p.m.
Windom at Milroy Irish, 2 p.m.
Worthington at Pipestone, 2 p.m.
Ruthton at Mountain Lake, 5 p.m.
Standings
First Nite League
Windom 17-2
Jackson 13-7
Lakefield 10-7
Fox Lake 10-10
Heron Lake 7-12
Worthington 5-13
Mountain Lake 5-13
Gopher League
Luverne 18-2
Milroy Irish 17-2
Hadley 13-5
Pipestone 10-8
Adrian 6-11
Ruthton 6-12
Tracy 3-15
JCC 15U
There will actually be a doubleheader Saturday night at Wacker Field.
After the Bulls and Yankees complete their amateur game, the JCC 15-under team will host Truman in the championship game of the I-90 Pony League tournament.
JCC made its way to the title game with a 14-5 win over Mountain Lake/Comfrey in the semifinals Thursday night. JCC is 11-1 on the season.
The Huskies got 15 hits in six innings at bat on Thursday.
Getting two hits apiece were Seth Stai, Brett Rossow, Bryson Powers, Brenan Runge, Nolan Ambrose and Hudson Austin. Recording one hit apiece were Mason Eicholz, Cael Johnson and Trey Rossow.
Trey Rossow got the win, throwing his maximum of 85 pitches. Ambrose got the final eight outs.
Updates
Fairmont graduate Luke Becker is hitting .264 (32-125) for the Schaumburg Boomers of the independent Frontier League. He has four doubles, one triple, two home runs and 16 runs batted in. He's walked 19 times and hit by a pitch once. Schaumburg is in second place in the Central Division with a 23-21 record, a half-game behind the Lake Erie Crushers.
Fairmont grad Jack Hested continues his season with the Beaches Turtles of the Coastal Collegiate Baseball League in Jacksonville, Fla. In 34.1 innings, he's allowed 50 runs (35 earned) on 61 hits, walking 18 and striking out 14.
Derek Shoen of Truman is hitting .280 (28-100) for the Bismarck Larks of the Northwoods League. He has six doubles, two home runs and leads the team in RBI with 26. The Larks were third in the Great Plains West Division in the first half of the season with an 18-17 record and are 4-3 and in second place to start the second half.