Friedrich Nitzsche said Out of chaos comes order. The District 8 baseball teams hope he’s right.
At a District 8 baseball meeting on Thursday at Heritage Christian Academy, representatives of all five district schools were present and tried to come to an agreement on the dates and times for the upcoming tournament.
The tournament, which was scheduled to be played at Fort Campbell, has been moved to University Heights Academy due to work being done on the Falcons’ field. Fort Campbell will be the host school. The opening day of the tournament is Monday, May 19. This much we know for sure.
Here’s where it gets interesting, or chaotic, or confusing.
Fort Campbell can’t play on Saturday due to graduation. Instead of playing Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, the coaches and athletic directors agreed to a unique proposal.
The play-in game between Fort Campbell and HCA would be played at 4:30 p.m. at HCA on Monday, May 19. The first semifinal game featuring the No. 2 seed and No. 3 seed would be played at 5:30 p.m. at UHA on May 19. The winner of the play-in game would then come over to UHA and play the top seed around 7:30 p.m. on May 19. The championship game would be held Tuesday, May 20, at 6 p.m. at UHA.
In a phone call with UHA Athletics Director Taylor Sparks, Region 2 Assigning Umpire Secretary Matt Bell said he thought he would have enough umpires to cover three games on May 19.
However, if there aren’t enough umpires, the coaches and athletic directors agreed to a “Scenario 2”, which would have the play-in game at 5:30 p.m. on May 19 at UHA. The semifinals would be played at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on May 20 at UHA and the championship game would be set for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21 at UHA.
But wait … the chaos isn’t over yet.
While Fort Campbell is the No. 4 seed with a 2-5 district record and HCA is the No. 5 seed with an 0-7 record, the top three seeds have not been determined. If Christian County beats Hopkinsville Friday night, the Colonels would be No. 1, followed by UHA, and Hopkinsville.
However, if Hoptown beats Christian County, it would force a three-way tie for the top seed and the tiebreaker would be runs allowed in district games. The Colonels have allowed 10 runs in the district, followed by Hoptown (16) and UHA (17). The Blazers still have district games left with HCA and Fort Campbell next week. If the season ends with a three-way tie, Christian County is in the driver’s seat as long as it doesn’t give up more than 6 runs. Hopkinsville would have to beat Christian County 7-0 Friday night to be the top seed. UHA can’t give up any runs to Fort Campbell or HCA next week and needs the Tigers to beat the Colonels 8-1 Friday to be the top seed.
Do you have a headache yet? Wait, it’s not finished yet.
If the teams end up with the same number of runs allowed, then they would go to the RPI. If the season ended today, it would be UHA (No. 1), Christian County (No. 2), and Hopkinsville (No. 3. Of course, the RPI changes daily.
Regardless of who plays who and on what day, tickets will be $8 and will be cash only at the gate.