INA – The Rend Lake College Warriors head into the Region XXIV Championship Tournament after sweeping Lake Land College in a three-game series over the weekend that boosted RLC over the .500 mark.
Rend Lake – a fifth seed in the six-seed tourney – will face two-seed John A. Logan in the final game of the opening round at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 10 in Carterville. The Lake went 0-3 against the Volunteers in late March during the regular season. However, Warriors head coach Tony Etnier said he is taking a different team to Carterville on Thursday.
“We feel like we match up better with them now,” he said. “We have turned things around. Everybody’s confidence level is high and we are ready to go.”
According to Etnier, playing against the host team on their home field makes no difference.
“To win this tournament, we feel like we are going to have to play them anyway,” he said. “We faced them earlier in the season and didn’t do so well. So, this is a game we can definitely get up for.”
RLC sophomore Brandon Braboy will take the mound for the Warriors on Thursday in the first day of the double elimination tournament. Braboy is 3-2 in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference and finished the regular season with a 2.60 ERA.
Etnier said it will be a team effort and he does not look for any one person to stand out. Every player will have to execute at his role to win, he said.
“We fought hard to get here and we are going to do the same things we have been doing to win,” he said.
The tournament begins in the morning with Wabash Valley playing Olney Central at 9 a.m.and Lincoln Trail College playing Southwestern Illinois College at noon.
The loser of Lincoln Trail and SWIC will play the loser of RLC vs. Logan in a 9 a.m. game Friday, May 11. The winner of Lincoln Trail and SWIC will play the loser of Wabash vs. Olney Central at a noon game Friday. The winners of Wabash vs. Olney and RLC vs. Logan will play at 3 p.m. Friday.
The seeding goes as follows ... Lincoln Trail (1), Logan (2), Wabash Valley (3), Olney Central (4), Rend Lake (5) and Southwestern Illinois College (6).