Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Playoff baseball is almost here.

The postseason gets underway for the two smallest classes in Iowa on Saturday with the opening of district play in Class 1A and 2A.

Substate finals are set for July 20 in both classes with the state tournament for Classes 1A and 2A scheduled to be held July 26-29 at Merchants Park in Carroll.

Before the postseason gets rolling full steam on Saturday here is a quick look at what lies ahead for the teams in the Your Prep Sports area that open postseason play this weekend.

Class 2A, Substate 5

(Districts 9 & 10)

Top seeds: Dyersville Beckman (District 9); Camanche (District 10)

Ranked teams: No. 10 Dyersville Beckman

Breakdown: Substate 5 will serve as a de facto River Valley Conference tournament with 10 of 14 RVC teams in the field.

All six teams in District 10 are RVC squads, including five from the South Division, as rivals West Liberty and West Branch and Wilton and Tipton meet in the openers on Saturday.

West Branch (5-25) will take on West Liberty (9-14) at 5 p.m. at Wilton with the winner traveling to Camanche (19-6) on Tuesday.

West Liberty swept the Bears in a RVC regular season doubleheader winning 4-3 and 13-10 all the way back on June 1.

The Comets boast one of the better arms in the league in junior Caleb Wulf who is 2-2 with a 1.47 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 43 innings.

Durant awaits the Wilton and Tipton winner in the other semifinal and long-time rivals Cascade (17-9) and No. 10 Dyersville Beckman are the top two seeds in District 9.

What to watch: West Branch will try to bottle the momentum from an 8-3 road win over a solid Mediapolis (18-9) squad on Monday and carry it into the postseason.

The eight runs on Monday came on eight West Branch hits and matched the most for the Bears since a win over North Cedar on June 17.

The West Branch offense is led by junior Lucas Pierce who is batting a team-high .382 with nine doubles and 18 RBI while junior Logan Highly is hitting .308 with 15 RBI.

Class 2A, Substate 6

(Districts 10 & 11)

Top seeds: Mid-Prairie (District 10); Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (District 11)

Ranked teams: No. 4 Mid-Prairie

Breakdown: Regina (13-14) will be tested right out of the gate facing West Burlington (13-9) in a District 11 opener on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Mediapolis.

The Falcons have won four straight and five of their last six entering the postseason while Regina closed the regular season with back-to-back losses.

Awaiting the winner of Saturday’s opener is fourth-ranked and top-seeded Mid-Prairie (17-7) who has home field advantage through the district tournament.

If Regina can get past West Burlington the Regals should have some confidence for a rematch with Mid-Prairie after splitting a regular season doubleheader with the Golden Hawks in Wellman last week.

Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (22-5) is the top seed in District 12 and the most likely substate 6 final opponent.

What to watch: The postseason is all about pitching and Regina will need to ride a couple of senior hurlers to another deep playoff run.

Danny Molony and Kyle Schooley have been solid all season in the top two spots in the Regina rotation and will look to take it up another level in postseason play.

Molony worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings against Liberty High in the regular season finale on Wednesday and owns a team-best 2.65 ERA in 37 innings this season while Schooley is 3-2 with a 4.02 in 31 1/3 innings.

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