EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville High School baseball team will have at least two games to play this weekend. It's up to them which two they want to play in. The worst they can do now though is finish fourth in the Class 4A State Championships.

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The Tigers will take on Brother Rice High School in the state semifinals. Brother Rice is a Catholic all-male college prep institution in Chicago. The Crusaders come into the state semifinals with a 35-5 record.

That contest with Brother Rice is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday, June 10. The game will be played at DuPage Medical Group Field in Joliet, as will all the state games. The field is located at 1 Mayor Art Schultz Dr, Joliet, IL 60432.

The winner between Edwardsville and Brother Rice will move on to the championship game on Saturday, May 11 at 5:30 p.m. The loser will play in the third-place game starting at 3 p.m. Saturday.

That game isn't on Edwardsville's minds right now. They're going for it all just like they did back in 2019. That year they finished 37-5 and defeated St. Charles North in the championship game by a score of 3-2.

This season, the Tigers have a record of 34-4 and are currently riding a seven-game win streak.

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Their postseason began at Alton High School when they took on and defeated the Redbirds 16-4. They moved on to play Quincy and won 13-3. That was for the Regional Championship.

After that, it was a much-anticipated rematch with the Belleville East Lancers, one of only Edwardsville's four losses on the season, a loss that ended the Tigers' 22-game win streak to open the season. It should have been a close contest, but Edwardsville ran away to a 10-0 win over the Lancers at a packed SIUE baseball diamond.

The Tigers then moved on to play Minooka in the Sectional Championship at Illinois Wesleyan University. They handed the Indians a 10-0, Edwardsville's second 10-0 win in a row.

Finally, their last game against Plainfield North was their closest one yet. It too was played at IWU and the Tigers narrowly won 3-2 over Plainfield North. Cole Funkhouser's walk-off single scored Cade Hardy from second to end the game in a dramatic fashion.

Edwardsville has outscored their opponents 52-9 thus far in the postseason. The bats have been hot, up, and down the batting order.

The Tigers have been putting up the runs, but the defense and pitching have been dialed in as well.

It will most likely be a combination of Spencer Stearns and Gannon Burns on the mound this weekend. It's unknown which pitcher will start which game as head coach Tim Funkhouser didn't know who he was going to go with after Stearns had to come out of the game early again Plainfield North due to "arm tightness." Either way though, the Tigers should be in good hands.

You can follow along with live updates from the state championships and read articles like this one on our Twitter page. The link for it can be found here.

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