Wednesday night, amateur baseball teams in the First Nite and Gopher leagues will start their playoffs.
Jackson and Lakefield will both be at home for the opening game of a best-of-three series.
The Bulls will face Tracy in the opening round for the second straight year.
Jackson is the number two seed from the First Nite League, while the Engineers are the No. 7 seed from the Gopher League.
Game One will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wacker Field. Game Two is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Tracy. If Game Three is necessary, it would be played at 2 p.m. Sunday in Jackson.
The Bulls won last year's opening-round series in two straight, winning 12-1 and 17-1. Jackson won the only meeting between the teams this year 11-2 on June 6 at Wacker Field.
Bulls' manager Scott Bahr said none of that matters much.
"It wasn't too many years ago we were the eight seed for the region tourney and we played Luverne, the one seed, and we knocked them off," he said. "You can't look past anybody. Tracy has really nice guys, we played them early in the year and it went pretty well for us. The nice thing is that we get to play at home. Our field is really starting to play well now. Blaise (Jacobsen) has done a great job.":
Bahr said Ryan Rasche will be Jackson's starting pitcher on Wednesday. "I don't think that surprises anybody coming off the record-breaking win," Bahr commented.
The Bulls wrapped up their regular-season schedule this past weekend with wins over the Milroy Yankees and Adrian, using several pitchers in both games. We were able to get everybody a little bit of work over those two days," said Bahr. "We've got our bullpen sitting right where we want it."
Bahr hasn't determined a Game Two starter. He'll wait until he sees who he'll need to use in the opener."
The Frogs are seeded third in the FNL and meet Gopher League No. 6 Ruthton.
Lakefield won the lone meeting between those teams 13-5 on May 30 at Ruthton, scoring nine of those run in the fifth inning.
Admission will be charged for playoff games at all locations.
There are six first-round series, with each having Game One on Wednesday, Game Two Friday or Saturday depending on the availability of lights and Game Three Sunday if necessary.
The six winners advance to the Region 13C playoffs, joining Windom (First Nite) and Luverne (Gopher), who were the number one seed in their respective leagues and received byes into the region.
PLAYOFF PAIRINGS
Jackson vs. Tracy
Wednesday - at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday - at Tracy, 2 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Jackson, 2 p.m.
Lakefield vs. Ruthton
Wednesday - at Lakefield, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Ruthton, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Lakefield, 2 p.m.
Fox Lake vs. Adrian
Wednesday - at Truman, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday - at Truman, 2 p.m.
Pipestone vs. Heron Lake
Wednesday - at Pipestone, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday - at Heron Lake, 2 p.m.
Sunday - at Pipestone, 2 p.m.
Hadley vs. Mountain Lake
Wednesday - at St. James, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday - at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Sunday - Sunday - (if necessary) at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Milroy Irish vs. Worthington
Wednesday - at Irish Yard, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Worthington, 7:30 p.m.”
Sunday - (if necessary) at Irish Yard, 2 p.m.
Final standings
First Nite League
Windom 19-2
Jackson 14-7
Lakefield 12-8
Fox Lake 10-10
Heron Lake 8-13
Mountain Lake 6-14
Worthington 5-15
Gopher League
Luverne 18-2
Milroy Irish 17-3
Hadley 14-6
Pipestone 11-9
Adrian 7-12
Ruthton 7-13
Tracy 4-16
Know Bull
Easton Bahr has 27 stolen bases this season, which is the second-most ever in one season for Jackson. Easton has two of the top five single-season stolen base totals ever for the Bulls.
Bulls single-season stolen base leaders
33 Matt Foster 1996
27 Easton Bahr 2021
26 Matt Foster 1999
25 Easton Bahr 2018
23 Matt Foster 1998
23 Ryan Dunlavey 1998
23 Lincoln Wacker 1993