BY CLIFF SMELLEY
The Bradford, Keystone Heights and Union County high school baseball teams begin play in their respective district tournaments on Tuesday, April 15.
Keystone (17-7) is the number-one seed in the District 4-2A tournament and has a first-round bye. The tournament consists of two quarterfinal games on Monday, April 14: fourth seed Interlachen (12-8) vs. fifth seed P.K. Yonge (10-12) and third seed Trinity Catholic (8-16) vs. sixth seed Crescent City (6-15). Keystone will host the Interlachen/P.K. Yonge winner in an April 15 semifinal at 7 p.m., while second seed Newberry (11-7) will host the Trinity Catholic/Crescent City winner that same night.
The two semifinal winners will play for the championship on Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m.
Union (12-13) is the second seed in District 6-Rural and is hosting the entire tournament, which begins with two quarterfinal games on April 14: fourth seed Fort White (11-9) vs. fifth seed Hilliard (4-16) at 4 p.m. and third seed Branford (19-6) vs. sixth seed Hawthorne (10-9) at 7 p.m.
Top seed Lafayette (18-2) will play the Fort White/Hilliard winner at 4 p.m. on April 15, while Union will play the Branford/Hawthorne winner at 7 p.m.
The championship game will be April 17 at 7 p.m.
Bradford (11-12) is the third seed in District 5-3A and will travel to Palatka to play the second seed Panthers (16-8) in an April 15 semifinal at 6 p.m. The tournament’s other semifinal game will pit top seed Santa Fe (10-14) against fourth seed Eastside (0-21).
If the Tornadoes win their semifinal game, they’ll either travel to Alachua to play Santa Fe or host Eastside for the championship on April 17 at a time to be determined by the host.
