Oxford, Piedmont draw baseball byes
- Updated: February 22, 2015
Defending champion Yellow Jackets earn No. 1 County tournament seed, Piedmont gets No. 2 to help basketball commitment
By East Alabama Sports Today
Defending champion Oxford and Piedmont drew the top two seeds and first-round byes as the Calhoun County baseball tournament opens at the end of the week.
The tournament will be played at three venues on Friday’s opening day — Jacksonville, Alexandria and Saks. It moves to Jacksonville and Alexandria on Saturday, then Alexandria for the semifinals Monday and finals at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Oxford will meet the winner of the Weaver-Saks game and Piedmont will face the winner of Wellborn-Pleasant Valley.
Unlike the process for some of the other sports, there were so votes or secret ballots. The seeding for the baseball tournament was determined by a consensus of the coaches. Oxford was given the No. 1 seed as defending champions. Piedmont was given the No. 2 seed and second bye to help its schedule for a potential Class 3A state basketball championship game date Friday.
Piedmont coach James Blanchard said he was “good” with his team’s placement.
“It wasn’t long ago we were considered a 14th or 15th seed and we’ve worked our way up to No. 2,” he said.
The timing of playing the tournament is always open to debate. The early weeks of the season may be too soon to play a county tournament, especially when some teams may not have even played yet, but a later start pushes it against the state tournament.
“There’s no good time to play this thing,” Alexandria coach Andy Shaw said. “I’d like to see it at the end, but you run up against the state tournament.”
CALHOUN COUNTY BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
Seeds: 1. Oxford, 2. Piedmont, 3. Alexandria, 4. White Plains, 5. Jacksonville, 6. Ohatchee, 7. Wellborn, 8. Weaver, 9. Saks, 10. Pleasant Valley, 11. Donoho, 12. Jacksonville Christian, 13. Anniston, 14. Faith Christian.
Friday’s Games
At Saks
No. 8 Weaver vs. No. 9 Saks, 4:30 p.m.
No. 4 White Plains vs. No. 13 Anniston, 7 p.m.
At Jacksonville
No. 5 Jacksonville vs. No. 12 Jacksonville Christian, 4:30 p.m.
No. 7 Wellborn vs. No. 10 Pleasant Valley, 7 p.m.
At Alexandria
No. 3 Alexandria vs. No. 14 Faith Christian, 4:30 p.m.
No. 6 Ohatchee vs. No. 11 Donoho, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
At Jacksonville
Weaver-Saks winner vs. No. 1 Oxford, 11 a.m.
Jacksonville-JCA winner vs. White Plains-Anniston winner, 1:30 p.m. (approx.)
At Alexandria
Alexandria-Faith winner vs. Ohatchee-Donoho winner, 11 a.m.
Wellborn-Pleasant Valley winner vs. No. 2 Piedmont, 1:30 p.m. (approx.)
Monday’s Games
At Alexandria
Alexandria-Faith/Ohatchee-Donoho winner vs. Wellborn-PV/Piedmont winner, 4:30 p.m.
Oxford/Weaver-Saks winner vs. Jacksonville-JCA/White Plains-Anniston winner, 7 p.m.
Tuesday’s Game
At Alexandria
Championship game, 5:30 p.m.
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