A look at every first round state tournament baseball game for the Topeka area

TOPEKA — The state baseball tournament begins this week with three Topeka-area teams representing the city. Topeka High, Shawnee Heights and Hayden will try to take home the state title.

The first round of the state tournament begins on Thursday. The semifinals, third-place game and state championship will all be played on Friday. Here is a look into the first-round matchups for the three teams from the capital city.

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Topeka High

The Trojans (17-4) enter as the No. 4 seed in the Class 6A State Tournament. They will face No. 5 Lawrence Free State (21-6) in the first round of action on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. The Class 6A State Tournament is hosted by the University of Kansas’ Holland Stadium.

Topeka High has won 12 of its last 13 games coming into the first round and has not faced the Firebirds this season. The Trojans did not play against any teams in the regular season that qualified for the Class 6A State Tournament.

Last year, the Trojans lost 9-0 to Derby in the opening round of the state tournament.

Shawnee Heights

The Thunderbirds (13-11) upset the No. 1 seed in the East Regional last week as Shawnee Heights topped De Soto 3-0 to win the regional title.

No. 5 Shawnee Heights will battle against No. 4 Spring Hill (17-8) in the opening round of the Class 5A State Tournament. The game is set for Thursday at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium with first pitch slated for 1:15 p.m. This will be the first meeting between Shawnee Heights and Spring Hill this season.

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Hayden

The Wildcats (15-12) enter the Class 3A State Tournament as the No. 7 seed and have won five of their last six games coming into Thursday’s first-round matchup.

In the first round, Hayden will take on No. 2 Hesston (20-4) at Kansas State’s Tointon Family Stadium with first pitch at 3:30 p.m.

Hayden and Hesston have not played each other this year. The Wildcats have not played any team in the regular season that has qualified for the Class 3A State Tournament

Liam Keating covers high school sports for The Topeka Capital-Journal. Send stats or information to him at Lkeating@gannett.com.