The Houston High School baseball team knows what is coming in the district opener.
Fastballs.
And lots of them.
The fifth-seeded Tigers open postseason play Friday with a first-round matchup against No. 4 Liberty in the Class 3 District 10 tournament. The pairing means HHS will likely face hard-throwing right-hander Kale Cornman with its season on the line.
In Friday’s other first-round game from Ava High School, third-seeded Licking plays No. 6 Willow Springs at 4 p.m.
The district’s top two seeds –– Mountain Grove and Ava –– both received byes and will play first-round winners in Monday’s semifinals. The championship game is Tuesday.
Houston (10-12) faces Cornman –– and his 80 mph darting fastball –– for the second consecutive year to open the postseason. In 2015, the Tigers struck out 16 times and managed just one hit in a 5-1 loss to Liberty.
An April 25 matchup this season yielded fairly similar results as Cornman fanned 18 HHS batters. But the Tigers did manage seven hits in a 7-6 eight-inning loss.
Houston, which completed its season at home Tuesday against Mansfield and Wednesday at Dora, has finished strong after a midseason lull. The Tigers rallied past Hartville 13-6, hammered Summersville 13-3 and were edged Friday 2-1 at Plato, the seventh-ranked team in Class 2.
HHS has a pair of pitchers with drastically different styles to pick from to open districts.
Nathan Poynter, who is a hard thrower himself, is 3-4 with a team-best 3.27 ERA. He also leads the Tigers with 48 strikeouts in 40.2 innings.
Another option is Stetson Welch, a soft-tossing right-hander who is 5-3 with a 3.74 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 48.2 innings.
Senior Kyle Wilson leads the HHS offense with a .433 batting average. Poynter and Stetson Welch are both hitting .328.
Stetson Welch and Wilson lead the club in RBIs with 18 and 17, respectively.
Games played at Ava High School
Friday’s games
•(3) Licking vs. (6) Willow Springs, 4 p.m.
•(4) Liberty vs. (5) Houston, 6 p.m.
Monday’s games
•(1) Mountain Grove vs. Liberty-HHS winner, 4 p.m.
•(2) Ava vs. Licking-Willow winner, 6 p.m.
Tuesday’s games
•Championship, 5 p.m.