Faribault Baseball Second Season Begins Thursday

The Faribault Falcon baseball team will play Mankato East in New Ulm on Thursday in a double elimination first four tournament. Mankato West, Marshall and New Ulm wait to see who wins the first four to get into the final four in the next round.

There are only seven teams in the section so there really is no need to do this first four tournament. But the teams agreed so they could have double elimination all the way through.

Some sections are single elimination all the way, some are single elimination the first round and double elimination the rest of the way and this is one of the double elimination all the way.

I don't understand why each section gets to do their own thing. Shouldn't it be one set of rules for all sections? Either have single then double elimination, single elimination or double elimination all the way through in every section.

I like the sections that at minimum play the first games at the high seed. You bust your tail all year to get a higher seed and your team and fans should be rewarded with a home game and no travel. It also saves on transportation costs with fewer teams on the road.

Section 2 Class 3A baseball could have (I know they don't want us to say it) a play-in game with the bottom two seeds playing to make it six teams and then double elimination. First round could be played at high seeds and then go to New Ulm or wherever to finish the tournament. Play-in game Monday or Tuesday. First round at high seed Thursday and then resume action Saturday.

I'm also not a fan of having the entire tournament at the same site every year. Why should New Ulm get a home field advantage every season in the Sections? I believe most Class 3A teams have a nice field and could host the tournament.

I know they have two nice fields but Faribault and Waseca aren't that far apart. Mankato has multiple nice fields and Marshall likewise. Why not let the No. 1 seed host the true final four games?

Here is how the first four shakes out:

No. 4 Worthington plays No. 7 Waseca at Johnson Park in New Ulm.
No. 5 Mankato East tangles with No. 6 Faribault at Mueller Park in New Ulm.

Those games are at 5PM.

The winners and losers play each other at 7PM, and then come back Saturday to finish the first four portion of the tournament with games at 11AM and 1PM.

The other seeds in the tournament go like this: