FOR THE SOUTHERN

MARION - Three District 25 American Legion senior baseball teams will begin play at the 5th Division tournament today, hosted by Marion Post 147 at Ray Fosse Park.

'This is the first time we've hosted the division after hosting many district tournaments before," Marion coach Greg Haub said. "This is a very strong field with a lot of 30-win teams."

Murphysboro Post 127 (35-3) won its first District 25 championship since it won the state title in 2005. Murphysboro opens play at 1 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of the District 23 West Division, New Baden.

"We've had a real good season both in district and out of district," Murphysboro coach Butch Brasel said. "We've seen New Baden play when we played in the Trenton Tournament during the season. They are going to play hard and have good pitching."

Steeleville Post 480 (16-16) finished second to Murphysboro and plays at 10 a.m. Tuesday against the District 24 first-place team, Carrier Mills (19-8).

"This will be the first time in a long while Steeleville will be playing in the division tournament," Steeleville coach Kevin Becker said. "The strength of our team is pitching and defense. Offensively we don't have a lot of power so we have to move base runners along and we have guys who can step up and get the big hit we need it."

Marion (25-4) opens play at 7 p.m. today against the District 24 second-place team, Cisne (18-7), in the play-in game.

"We've never seen Cisne before so I don't know much about them except they are supposedly a good hitting team," Haub said.

Murphysboro � the second seed � swept the District 25 tournament beating Carbondale 14-0, Orient 13-10, Sparta 17-3 and Steeleville 10-0 in the championship game. Steeleville - the fifth seed - lost its first game in the District 25 tournament to sixth-seeded Sparta to drop into the elimination bracket. Post 480 then eliminated top seed Marion before beating Orient, Carbondale and Sparta to earn a spot in the championship game against Murphysboro.

"The kids didn't want to lose and played their hearts out to earn a spot in the championship game," Becker said. "We came out after losing that first game and played good defense, had good pitching and scored the runs we needed."

In the district tournament, Marion lost its first game to eighth-seeded Pinckneyville before being eliminated by Steeleville. Marion had an automatic bid to the division by virtue of hosting the Division tournament.

"We had a little talk about being serious when we practiced Saturday morning," Haub said. "They know they had a bad showing last week and have to work a little harder because it is now crunch time. However, the team is pretty upbeat because they know they are a decent team."

The 5th Division tournament opens today with the 4 p.m. game between District 22 North winner Edwardsville and District 23 East winner Effingham. Tuesday's action winds up with a 4 p.m. game between the winner of Marion/Cisne and the District 22 South champion and a 7 p.m. between the loser of Marion/Cisne and the loser of Edwardsville/Effingham.