The IMS baseball team is coming off their first round win in the district playoffs over English Valley, and play again tonight against a familiar opponent in Pekin.

IMS is led by the bat of Dallas Nye with a .403 average and 22 RBI’s, while Reggie Hostetler is hitting .322 and Brent Brenneman is hitting .301. Payton Miller threw a beauty in the first round to get the win, but he will not be able to throw tonight, so IMS will used Tanner Leyden with a 2.63 ERA, 40 K’s and opponents hit .216.

Pekin finished second in the SEISC north division, and has won 13 straight after a close 1-0 win over Sigourney.

Seven hitters are over .300, and the top three with Keaton Winn, Cade Millikin and Kolby Allsup are all hitting over .400 on the season. Zach Sloan was the pitcher of record against Sigourney, which means their top arm in Keaton Winn will throw tonight. Winn has a .43 ERA, 66 strikeouts and opponents hit just .094.

IMS pitcher Payton Miller said after the game that they knows Pekin, and that his team will need to be rested for a tough game.

“We have to get rested up mentally and physically,” Miller said. “Pekin is a really good team and we’re really hoping that we can come out and defensively and offensively and just smack the ball and field the ball really well.”

Tonight’s game is at Pekin and you can hear it right here on AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com under radio plus with pregame at 6:30 and first pitch at 7. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII and KCIIradio.com.