Eupora starts baseball playoffs today

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Eupora baseball coach Lee Berryhill gets his team on the bus for the long trip to Lumberton today to open the Class 2A playoffs. (Photo by Kim Murrell, SDN)

The Eupora High School baseball team starts its journey to a state title today.

The Eagles grabbed the No. 2 seed in the Class 2A, Region 5, District 4 and play No. 3 seed Lumberton out of Region 8, District 5 in what is called a play-in round.

Eupora travels to Lumberton for a single game today at 5 p.m. If necessary the Eagles will host a doubleheader on Saturday at 2 p.m. It is the best two-out-of-three series.

This is the first year Eupora has been in the south and head coach Lee Berryhill does not know much about Lumberton.

"I have been here 17 years so teams out of the south I am not real familiar with," Berryhill said. "I just have to go by what people tell me."

Berryhill has not singled on one player all year, and he does not expect to change that in the postseason.

"It is going to take a team effort on our part," Berryhill said. "That's the way we play, and that's our philosophy everybody do their job. We don't have any one person right now or this season that stands out more so than others. We depend on everybody do to their job."

The higher seed coach decides if the first game will be on the road and the doubleheader at home.

Like many coaches, Berryhill decided to have the first game on the road to give him possibly two games at home.

"A lot of people look at that in different ways," Berryhill said. "I know some coaches, like me, are doing the away game first and doubleheader at home. Some coaches are doing the first game home and doubleheader away because the first game seems to be huge, but then again if you lose the first game, you want the next two at home."

Google Maps shows the trip from Eupora to Lumberton to be just under four hours.

Berryhill is not concerned with his team being tired from the trip back, and the fact they might have to play two on Saturday.

"It is (a concern) to a certain extent, but you know how guys are at this age," Berryhill said. "You could play a home game on Friday and a lot of them want go home and go to bed until midnight anyway. Then again, if they are with us, they are on the bus and they will probably sleep on the way home anyway. We don't play until 2 p.m. the next day so it gives them some time to sleep in."

If Eupora wins the series, they will play the No. 1 seed out of Division 7 who is yet to be determined.