DuBOIS — The Pennsylvania Senior League Baseball State Championship is set to get underway Wednesday morning at Showers Field, with four of the eight teams in the tournament returning from a year ago.
That quartet features perennial competitors Pennridge and Montousville, along with host DuBois and Hatboro. Pennridge went undefeated last year in winning the state title, beating Montoursville, 12-4, in the championship game.
DuBois is making its second straight appearance at the state tournament, with last year’s team being the first to play in the event since it was moved to Showers Field in 2014.
The hometown squad went 0-2 a year ago, dropping its opening game to Pennridge (5-0) before losing a tough 9-8 contest to West Scranton in a losers’ bracket game.
With the first-round matchups switched around this year, DuBois avoided an opening game against Pennridge. This time around Section 1 champ DuBois squares off against Section 8 champ Hatboro at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the final game of a quadrupleheader.
Hatboro reached the winners’ bracket finals last year — beating Montoursville (6-5) along the way — before suffering a 6-0 loss at the hands of Pennridge. Hatboro then dropped a tough 2-1, 10-inning contest to Montoursville in the losers’ bracket finals.
Action gets underway Wednesday with an 11 a.m. game between Greenville (Section 2) and Hanover (Section 5). The second game features Hollidaysburg (Section 4) vs. Octorara (Section 7) at 2 p.m.
The 5 p.m. game Wednesday shapes up to be a good one, as Pennridge (Section 6) and Montoursville (Section 3) meet in a rematch of last year’s state finals.
There will be four games again on Thursday, with losers’ bracket game being held at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and winners games at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The winners and losers of the Greenville-Hanover and Hollidaysburg-Octorara game will meet Thursday, as will the winners and losers of the Pennridge-Montoursville and DuBois-Hatboro matchups.
The state championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m., with the if-necessary title game to follow at 4 p.m.