The regular season is over for the Great Bend Chiefs.
Now their focus has shifted to a Class AAA American Legion Zone Tournament, which starts on Tuesday night.
The No. 3-seeded Chiefs challenge No. 2 seed Garden City at 5 in Dodge City.
“The only thing I know of is their high school team,” Great Bend head coach Michael Stettinger said. “They have a solid high school team, but I know the legion team is a county-wide team.”
Still, Stettinger said he knows at least some of the things he can expect from Garden City.
“I know they have at least a couple good pitchers,” Stettinger said. “They have a good catcher. They’ll swing the bat some.”
The zone is made up of Garden City, Dodge City and Great Bend.
“The zones are different each year,” Stettinger said. “It’s not uncommon to have three teams in a zone anymore. When I started out coaching, we’d have six or seven, but towns have been dropping out of legion to go to select teams.
“Both of the other teams in our zone are solid.”
The tournament is double elimination. The winner of the Great Bend-Garden City game will play top-seeded Dodge City on Tuesday night. The losers of Tuesday’s games will play an elimination game on Wednesday, followed by the championship game.
Last season, the Chiefs advanced to the championship round at Hays, losing to the host team.