Staff Reports

The opening round of the Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference baseball tournament will look a lot like rivalry night.

The tournament begins Tuesday night with these quarterfinal match-ups, played at the higher seed: (6) Elkin at (3) East Wilkes, (5) Forbush at (4) Starmount, (7) North Wilkes at (2) West Wilkes and (8) Ashe County at (1) Wilkes Central. Alleghany, the No. 9 seed, did not make the field.

All first-round games are set to start at 7 p.m. at their respective sites except for the North at West game, which will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The semifinals will be played Thursday at Forbush, with the Elkin-East and West Wilkes-North Wilkes winners playing at 4:30 p.m. The Starmount-Forbush and Wilkes Central-Ashe County winners will face off in the 7:30 p.m. game.

The MVAC tournament championship game will be Friday at 7 p.m. at Forbush High.

Regular season champion Wilkes Central, which lost just once in league play, has already locked up the No. 1 overall seed from the conference for the upcoming 2A state playoffs. But there is a lot at stake for remaining teams.

Elkin could grab a higher seed for the 1A playoffs if it can win the tournament. Starmount and Forbush, which finished tied in the regular season standings, could help their own 2A playoff causes by making a run to the title.