Metro East Bears open American Legion District 22 baseball playoffs Wednesday night

BELLEVILLE – The schedule for the Illinois American Legion District 22 baseball playoffs has been revised.

The Metro East Bears (Alton Post 126/Edwardsville Post 199) earned the No. 1 seed for the tournament by finishing the regular season 8-2 in the district, tying with Belleville but taking the head-to-head run differential tiebreaker. Highland took the third seed and Smithton/Freeburg took the No. 4 seed. Valmeyer, who had the No. 5 seed and East St. Louis, who had the No. 6 seed, both withdrew from the playoffs.

The tournament got under way Tuesday night. Metro East's home games will be played at Hoppe Park in Edwardsville.

Here is the schedule for the tournament, with the higher seed hosting all games; the Bears will have home-field advantage throughout the entire tournament. The winner of the playoffs advances to next week's Illinois Fifth Division tournament in Highland:

TUESDAY, JULY 11

GAME 1: Highland 7, Belleville 1

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12

GAME 2: Smithton/Freeburg at Metro East, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, JULY 14

GAME 3: Highland vs. Smithton/Freeburg-Metro East winner, TBA

GAME 4: Belleville vs. Smithton/Freeburg-Metro East loser, TBA (loser eliminated)

FRIDAY, JULY 15

GAME 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser, TBA (loser eliminated)

SATURDAY, JULY 16

GAME 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, TBA (final)

GAME 7 (IF NECESSARY): Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, TBA (if Game 3 winner's first loss)

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