Pairings released for substate baseball

District and substate baseball pairings were released by the Iowa High School Athletic Association on Friday.

Lone Tree and Hillcrest will travel to Pekin, Highland will head to Burlington-Notre Dame, and Mid-Prairie will stay home for the first round of the tournament.

The Huskies (11-9) were placed in Substate Six and will face Wapello (3-14) in the first round. Highland swept the Arrows in their regular season series. Substate six is headlined by Sigourney (19-3), but also includes Burlington-Notre Dame (17-7) and Lynnville Sully (22-2) as top threats for the Huskies.

Hillcrest (10-9) will Take on Keota (10-7) to open the postseason, while Lone Tree (1-17) will take on host team Pekin (15-3). The winners of those games will square off in the second round of the Substate Seven tournament, where Martensdale-St. Mary’s is the No. 1 seed. Lone Tree was swept by Pekin this year, while Hillcrest and Keota haven’t played since 2023.

Mid-Prairie (9-15) will open the playoffs hosting Monticello in the first round of the 2A Substate Four bracket. The Golden Hawks and Panthers also haven’t faced off since 2023. Marquette Catholic (22-5) and Regina (24-3) are the top seeds in the substate.