The Warrenton and Wright city baseball teams return to the Class 4, District 7 Tournament this weekend at Winfield.

The sixth-seeded Wildcats (6-13) face the host school Saturday at 11 a.m., with the winner facing No. 2 seed Warrenton (17-7) Monday at 4 p.m.

“Getting a bye is huge,” Warrenton Head Coach Eric Burle said. “Anytime you can get a bye in the district tournament is big because you can save your pitching and give yourself a better chance to get back to that district championship game.”

Warrenton beat Wright City in the teams’ only meeting this season, 7-3.

The Warriors split their two-game conference series with Winfield late last month, with each team winning on its home field.

“I don’t know if they weren’t ready to play or they were underestimating us, but they had a pitch-to-contact guy on the mound and we put a lot of balls in play that day,” Burle said of his team’s 12-0 win in the first game against Winfield. “We took advantage of the fact that we found some holes in their defense. We had a few chances to win that second game, too. But you can’t win them all.”

Lutheran St. Charles was given the No. 1 seed, and will face No. 4 St. Dominic or No. 5 Christian Monday at 1:30 p.m.

“Lutheran was 3-0 against district opponents and was undefeated against all common district opponents, so whenever you do that you basically lock yourself into that top seed,” Burle said. “We had a good resume and had the best overall record, but the fact that we split with Winfield and with St. Dominic obviously hurt us a little bit.” 

Despite appearing to have a better team than Winfield and Wright City, and with a tough championship game likely on the horizon, Burle said he didn’t plan on changing his starting pitching rotation Monday.

“You have to pitch your best,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of teams save their best pitching for the end of the tournament and they don’t even make it to the championship game. You have to pitch your best guy to ensure you get there.”

That appears to be senior Eli Ecton, who is expected to start the semifinal.

“And if we can get by with Eli in the first game without using anyone else, we’d have Chris (Vogt) ready to go in the next game.”

The championship is scheduled for next Thursday at 4 p.m.

“We’ve been playing really well as a team,” Burle said. “As far as playing as a team, this is one of the better team’s I’ve coached. A couple of years ago we had a lot of talent, but this group is a pretty good team. We’ve had a lot of timely hits this year up and down the lineup, and that’s really helped us.”