Yellow Jacket baseball to start season today

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The Yellow Jacket baseball season begins today, as Chester will face DeSoto and Ste. Genevieve as part of the Valle Catholic/Ste. Genevieve Opening Day Tournament.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The two-day tournament features 12 teams - St. Louis Patriots, Park Hills Central, Scott City, Cape Central, Perryville, North County, Neelyville, Farmington and the aforementioned Yellow Jackets, Valle Catholic, Ste. Genevieve and DeSoto.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"A lot of swings," said Chester coach Jeremy Blechle on what he gets out of the tournament from a coaching perspective. "Four or five years ago when we started that, we finished second one time, I think, the last two years have not been all that successful.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"It's actually been detrimental because we faced what felt like hurricane winds, temperatures that felt like they were in the 20s, but were in the mid-30s or lower 40s and it's led to a lot of early-season injuries."</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Chester is the lone team from Illinois in the tournament and will play DeSoto at 5 p.m. as part of the "Bloomsdale Bank Pool." The Yellow Jackets will then turn around and play Ste. Genevieve at 7 p.m.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're gonna play great competition," Blechle said. "We open up with Ste. Gen and DeSoto, Missouri, and those are two great teams.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">"They are elite teams and big schools and you have to bring your 'A' game to compete."</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Both games will be played at Yanks Field in Pere Marquette Park in Ste. Genevieve. Saturday's matchups are determined by Friday's results, with the top four teams in each of the four pools playing in the championship pool.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The next four teams would play in the fifth-place pool and the final four teams would play in the ninth place pool.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Saturday's game times for Valle Catholic's pool will be played at Valle Catholic at the times of 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The other two pools will play at Yank's Field and North County at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Seeds and ties for Saturday's games will be decided by record, fewest runs allowed and head-to-head, in that order. Prizes will be awarded for first, second and third places.</span>

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