Eight teams qualified for the Class 5A Baseball Championship Series — which opens with games Friday and Saturday — and three of them hail from Aurora.
An upset-filled set of regional tournaments saw 16th-seeded Grandview and 11th-seeded Cherokee Trail come out of tournaments in which they were a lower seed playing on the road, while second-seeded Regis Jesuit was one of just four host teams to survive and advance.
With the seedings going straight into the 5A Championship Series bracket, the Aurora teams ended up in three of the four opening round games Friday.
The Cougars — last season’s 5A runner-up — play at All-City Stadium at 9:30 a.m. against Horizon (the No. 19 seed), while the Raiders will follow at the same venue with a noon contest against No. 7 Fort Collins. Also at noon — but at All-Star Park in Lakewood — will be the Wolves, who will face No. 8 Prairie View.
Winners advance to 2:30 p.m. contests, while the losers remain alive but move into the elimination bracket with contests beginning Saturday.
The Championship Series concludes May 31-June 1.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports