 Black Duck Baseball is headed into the Northland Conference Championship game. This time last year the Drake's were seven and nine going into that game. They're in much better position this time around. I spoke with the Drake's earlier this week. With the regular season winding down, the Black Duck Drake's are 12 and two on the season after finishing last year at 9 and 15. Last year was certainly a growing experience for us going through a 9 and 15 season. But they've been through the wars and they're ready to play some fun baseball and they're having a good time doing it I think. The offense has been a huge factor. The Drake's have scored 10 runs or more in nine of their games. And in most games they've had at least one inning with five runs or more. It's definitely helped the team as far as lightning the mood, keeping it going, having fun. Offensively I think we've really lit it up this year. We scored a lot of runs. We're averaging 14, 13, 14 runs a ball game. The pitching has been anchored by Ian Frenzel, but Peyton Johnson and Jonah Gustafson have also been solid on the mound. We're deep in the pitchers and that we can change anybody out for any time for when we have games. They're going to be closer games and games are just going to be a blowout. The team has played great defense most of the year, but they have seen an increase in errors in the last few games, which they hope to fix going forward. We keep trying to tell the boys just make the routine play and then good things happen. And so far we've had a little bit of struggles with that in the last couple of games, but I think that we're learning from that and that's always a good thing to be learning. Black Duck will take on Nevis in the Northland Conference Championships on Thursday night. The Tigers defeated the Drake's 3-2 in the regular season. They are a very good ball team. Well coached, traditional, very strong program. We'll be ready to play ball. We're looking forward to the rematch and we're looking forward to playing in the conference championship game again this year. The team has dealt with some injuries this year, particularly to Jonah Gustafson and Logan Sutton, but they have seen game action within the last week and a half and the team is in good position health-wise at this point. I think we're at the spot where we want to be when we're heading into the end of the year and looking at the postseason. I think everybody's relatively healthy. You know, there's bumps and bruises here and there, but I think overall we're positioned to make a good run here in the playoffs and our health is good. The Drake's and Tigers are set to play at 6 o'clock tomorrow at Bemidji State University. Seven teams from the Northland Conference will play in the tournament with Nevis also playing North home Kellier.