The Tonganoxie squad, which consists primarily of older THS players and a few former THS players, opened the tournament Tuesday against the Blue Valley Huskies. That game didn’t meet The Mirror’s deadline, but a win against Blue Valley would put the team in a 7:45 p.m. showdown today against the Lawrence Raiders.

A loss would drop them into the losers bracket against the loser of the Leavenworth Legends vs. Lansing Cubs game. That game would start at 5:30 p.m. today. All tournament games are being played at Free State High School in Lawrence.

The squad, coached by THS coach Phil Loomis, was 14-11 on the season entering zone play.

On July 10, the Big T squad finished its regular season with a doubleheader sweep of Hoyt in Tonganoxie. The team defeated Hoyt, 8-0, in the first game in five innings and 12-2 in four innings in the second game.

“We’ve got several of the guys … getting them focused and getting them trying to improve their games,” Loomis said. “I would say it’s been a pretty positive summer.”

Loomis said the squad doesn’t usually have any full-fledged team practices during the summer, but coaches work with players in smaller groups, with three or four players at a time.

Offensively, Tonganoxie has some players putting up respectable statistics.

John Volk, who will be a sophomore at Allen County Community College, is leading the team in hitting with a .474 batting average. His brother, Daniel Volk, is right behind at .446. Daniel will be a senior this fall at THS.

Also hitting well for Tonganoxie are Logan Forbis at .412 and Todd Brown at .389.