District 7 champion Ottawa will be the first opponent for the Fort Scott team when the Cal Ripken Baseball State 10-year-old Tournament gets underway Friday at Don Hewett Field.

Activities begin Thursday night at 7 p.m. with a home run derby on the south field at Fisher Park.

Fort Scott gained an automatic entry into the State Tournament as the host team but did take part in the District 6 Tournament at Osawatomie last weekend. Fort Scott won its first game, 7-3, over Emporia but later lost a 6-4 decision to Osawatomie and a 23-0 verdict to Emporia. Fort Scott finished in third place.

Osawatomie and Emporia met in the District 6 finals and Emporia, coming from the losers' bracket, won both games. Emporia won the first one 18-11 and the second 9-8. At this point, Emporia is the only State qualifier that came out of the losers' bracket in its District Tournament.

The State bracket is almost filled out with the District 4 Tournament awaiting completion. That final was scheduled for Sunday but the result has not yet been reported. Lyons, the tournament host and undefeated in tournament play, was scheduled to face Cottonwood Valley-National for the title.

The tournament opens Friday with a noon game between District 5 winner Coffeyville and District 3 champion Haysville. The District 4 winner will play Emporia at 2 p.m. with the game between SPIAA and Cimarron River -- a pair of teams from Southwest Kansas -- squaring off at 4 p.m.

The opening ceremony for the tournament will be held at 6:15. That will be followed by the Fort Scott-Ottawa game at 7 p.m.

The State Tournament is a double-elimination affair. If Fort Scott wins Friday night, it will play the winner of the SPIAA-Cimarron River contest Saturday at 4. If Fort Scott loses, it will play the loser of the SPIAA-Cimarron River game Saturday at 11 a.m. There will be six games played on Saturday.

Three more games are on tap Sunday with the first scheduled for 1 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday. A second game, if needed, will follow at 1:30 p.m.

A look at how the other teams made it to State:

* Cimarron River, which is composed of players from around the Liberal-Hugoton area, was unbeaten as host of the District 1 Tournament, beating Grant County 8-0 in the finals.

* The SPIAA team, made up of players who are generally from east and south of Dodge City, won the District 1 Wild Card Tournament at Spearville undefeated, beating Finney County in the finals, 15-2.

* Haysville won District 3 at Wellington, finishing an unbeaten run with a 16-0 win over Haysville.

* Coffeyville took District 5 without a loss, beating Independence 11-1 at Coffeyville.

* Ottawa won District 7, which it hosted. It was the unbeaten team in the finals but East Central won the first game 11-1 to force a second game. Ottawa won that contest, 6-5.

There is no District 2. It was merged with District 1 several years ago because there were not a large number of teams in that area while District 1 had many more teams. In essence, the Wild Card Tournament serves as a second tournament for the very large District 1.

NOTES -- A custom of Babe Ruth Baseball‚ of which Cal Ripken Baseball is a part, is the naming of a Most Valuable Player and a WOW Award winner after each game. MVP's are generally players who performed the best. A WOW Award goes to a player who made an outstanding play....