Baseball and softball brackets have been drawn

Poor weather kept the Patriots off their respective diamonds early in the season.

With the softball team having only played eight games, they know their first postseason opponent. While the baseball team has completed 14 games, they will have to prepare for one of two opponents.

The IHSAA drew its baseball and softball sectional tournaments on Sunday. The Jay County High School baseball team received a first round bye in the Class 3A Sectional 24 hosted by Yorktown, while the JCHS softball team will play host Delta.

Dates and times have yet to be determined for the games. The softball sectional tournament’s window opens on May 20 and runs through May 25 while the baseball tournament can take place between May 22 through May 27.

The Patriot baseball team (8-6) will face the winner of the New Castle Trojans (3-12) and the Centerville Bulldogs (4-5) in the semifinal. On April 14, Jay County split a double header with Centerville. It lost game No. 1 15-5 before picking up its first win of the season 7-3.

Jay County won’t play the two-time defending sectional champion Trojans (who currently hold the worst record among the Sectional 24 teams) in the regular season. New Castle has bounced the Patriots in the semifinal round the past two seasons.

If Jay County makes the championship game, they will match up with the winner of host Yorktown (9-6) and Delta (8-6). JCHS is slated to travel to Muncie to play Delta on March 13 and have not yet set a date to make up its game against the Tigers that got rained out on April 11.

The softball team isn’t slated to play the Eagles (2-11) in the regular season.

A victory in the opening round would earn Jay County a date with the Mississinewa Indians (7-4), who boast the second best record at the time of selection.

The top half of the bracket features an opening round contest between Centerville (5-5) and New Castle (2-12). The Bulldogs beat JCHS twice in 2023 and eliminated them from the tournament, but the two won’t face off in the regular season this year. The Patriots are slated to play the Trojans on March 6.

The winner will get a semifinal match up against back-to-back sectional champion and current favorite Yorktown (9-2).