The Pleasantville baseball team will take on Chariton in the Class 2A State Semifinals at Merchants Park in Carroll tonight which can be heard live on 95.3 KNIA.
The Trojans and Chargers are familiar opponents as the two teams played in the last regular season game of the season this year in which Pleasantville won 3-0 and Chariton was the team who defeated Pleasantville in the state quarterfinals last season. Both teams are coming off thrilling finishes in their respective quarterfinals games on Tuesday.
The Chargers defeated Van Meter 7-6 in extra innings after Chariton scored on a balk and their right fielder gunned down the potential tying run for Van Meter at the plate for the last out of the game. Pleasantville defeated West Lyon 5-4 in their quarterfinals contest as the Wildcats had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh and Braylon Bingham picked up back to back strikeouts to seal the win.
Pleasantville is the #2 seed and 31-1 overall as the Chargers are the #6 seed and 26-6 overall. The Trojans have the edge statistically over Chariton as the Trojans carry a team batting average of .343 and team ERA of 1.06 compared with a team batting average of .278 and team ERA of 2.98 for the Chargers. Pleasantville Head Coach Luke Adreon spoke with KNIA/KRLS after their win over West Lyon and he says Chariton is a familiar opponent and his team will have to be on top of their game.
“We’ve been saying all year, it’s today. We win today and tomorrow we will have practice and we are going to try and win tomorrow. We show up on Thursday and our plan is to win that day. That’s how we’ve practiced all year. Chariton is a familiar opponent and we know what we’re going to get. They’re a good team who’s going to play a good game and they’re going to do things right and we are going to have to play a really good game to play with them.”
First pitch tonight is scheduled for 7:00 pm and can be heard live on 95.3 KNIA with pregame starting at 6:45 pm. The winner will compete in the state championship Friday night.