The ten team field was announced Tuesday for the 47th annual Diamond Classic High School baseball tournament-- all nine games will be played at Oldsmobile Park beginning with a first round doubleheader at 5:30pm next Monday.

     The tournament is being renamed to the Dean Shippey Capital Diamond Classic-- in honor of the man who turns 90 on June 7th and who founded the tournament from the beginning.  And a Tony Noyola Scholarship will be presented this year in honor of the popular Lansing Parks and Rec department employee who died last summer.

     The top four seeds were predictable-- Grand Ledge, Lansing Catholic, Okemos and Fowlerville.  Okemos beat Fowlerville 12-11 in the championship game last year and Grand Ledge, with a 21-1 record, won two years ago, over Homer.

     The Monday doubleheader features the four teams not to get a bye-- Holt vs. Pewamo-Westphalia followed by Haslett vs. Portland St. Pat's.  The quarter-finals begin next Wednesday at 5:30pm-- Lansing Catholic vs. DeWitt, same opening match up as last year, followed by Fowlerville vs. St. Johns, the latter team leading the CAAC Red division race with an unbeaten conference record.

     The Thursday quarter-final doubleheader begins at 5:30pm with Okemos facing Holt/PW winner, followed by Grand Ledge against the Portland St. Pat's Haslett winner.

     The final four then take a week off until the semi-finals at 5:30pm June 2nd when the Lansing Catholic/DeWitt survivor meets the Okemos/Holt/PW survivor.  The second game pits the Grand Ledge/Portland St. Pat's Haslett survivor vs. the Fowlerville vs. St. Johns winner.  The title game is at 7pm Wednesday, June 4th.

     If Fowlerville makes it to the semi-finals, a potential match up with Grand Ledge could be a dandy if Fowlerville senior Josh Wedesky pitches.  He is the best in the area and will be the best Grand Ledge will have seen this season.

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