HASTINGS – With two scheduled games remaining on the regular season, the Wayne High baseball team found out their postseason route looking for a return trip to the Class C State Baseball Championships.
For the third time in the last four years, Wayne will make a trip to Hastings for district baseball competition on Thursday, May 2 and Friday, May 3.
#2 Wayne will open the C-5 District against #3 Louisville at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 2. The game will be carried on either KTCH or KCTY with pregame coverage set for 12:40 p.m.
Wayne High is 12-5 on the season and have won back-to-back including wins of 6-3 vs. Norfolk on April 22 and 5-3 at GACC/West Point-Beemer on April 23. WHS has won four of their past five outings.
Louisville is 3-11 on the season through Wednesday and recently won 12-8 at Omaha Bryan. The Lions will close out their regular season at Seward on Friday, April 26; host Arlington on Saturday and play at Centennial on Monday.
The Blue Devils were scheduled to host Lincoln Lutheran on Friday, April 26 but the game has now been canceled due to weather and field conditions in Wayne. WHS will next visit Platte Valley (Yutan) at 4 p.m. on Saturday and play at Malcolm at either 4 or 4:30 p.m. on Monday (both times listed on Mid State page for Wayne).
The other half of the C-5 District will feature #1 Adams Central (12-5), who has lost back-to-back with losses of 10-0 at Norris and 7-6 vs. Central City/Centura on April 22 – 23. Their opponent will be #4 Thurston-Cuming County (4-10) who has also dropped back-to-back with losses of 6-5 at GACC/West Point-Beemer and 13-11 vs. Fort Calhoun on April 22 – 23. the second game will be played around 4 p.m. next Thursday.
Wayne has not faced Louisville this year but have defeated Thurston-Cuming County 4-2 (March 21) in Pender and a home 13-3 win (April 9) and lost their season-opener of 2-0 vs. Adams Central on March 15.
Last year, Wayne High won 1-0 over Adams Central in the C-6 District Final in Hastings to advance to the first-ever Class C State Championships. In 2021, Hastings won 3-0 over Wayne in the Class B-1 District Final also in Hastings.
Another northeast Nebraska team will put #3 GACC/West Point-Beemer (8-7) in the C-1 district hosted by #1 Malcolm (16-3). GACC/West Point-Beemer will face #2 Fort Calhoun (8-10) at 3:30 p.m. on May 2 while Malcolm will await the winner of either #4 Maxwell-St. Pat’s (1-8) or #5 Tekamah-Herman (1-11).
GACC/West Point-Beemer won at Fort Calhoun, 6-2 on April 8.
District brackets:
C4 (Platteview – Buffalo Park)
C6 (Lincoln Lutheran – Sherman Field)
The 2024 NSAA State Baseball Championships will be held Friday, May 10 – Friday, May 17 in Elkhorn, Omaha and Papillion.
Class C first round games will be played on Saturday, May 11 from Frerichs Field in Elkhorn. Elimination and winner’s bracket games will then be played on Monday, May 13 at UNO – Tal Anderson Field; with another set of elimination games on Tuesday, May 14 from Papillion-LaVista South HS and semifinal games at Fricke Field in Papillion on Wednesday, May 15. The Class C State Baseball Championship game will be held on Friday, May 17 at Werner Park.
