{gallery}07_23_09/pioneers{/gallery} As senior team members, Pioneers (left to right) Gianluca Giarrizzo, Grant Geiser, Dallas Robirds, Scotty Jameson and Tyler Dahlgren have helped lead Powell to a 39-win regular season. This week, those five will be called upon to help Powell earn a spot in the state tournament. Tribune photo by Randal Horobik Pioneers open against Douglas The Powell Pioneers (39-13) open American Legion Baseball district tournament play today (Thursday) at 4 p.m. against the Douglas Cats. The game will take place in Casper and fans making the eastward trek might notice a difference from previous summers.

The dwindling number of Class AA Legion teams across Wyoming prompted state officials to combine the AA teams with Class A programs, like Powell, for purposes of the post-season. While the top four teams still advance to the state tournament, which will take place next week in Rock Springs, the identities of teams the Pioneers will have to navigate past to earn that state tournament berth have changed.

Case in point, the Pioneers' district tournament bracket includes the defending 2008 state AA champion Gillette Roughriders.

“It will be interesting to see how things play out with everyone mixed together,” said Pioneer head coach Mike Jameson. “I wish we could have seen some of those (Class AA) guys in the regular season, but I know a lot of them are hesitant to play against Class A teams.”

Neither side has any choice now that the brackets have been set. Powell's game against Douglas will open the evening session of baseball action at Casper's Mike Lansing Field.

The Pioneers and Cats hooked up three times in the regular season with Powell earning a victory all three times.

While the Cats may be a familiar foe to the Pioneer players, they're something of a mystery to the team's head coach.

“I was down in Texas getting married when we faced them,” Jameson said. “This will be the first time that I've seen them play. I know they have a good pitcher, but we'll just try and score runs early and support whoever we have on the mound.”

Runs haven't been much of an issue for the Pioneers in most games this season. The team has averaged 9.5 runs per outing this summer and has upped that to more than 15 runs per contest over its last five games.

The winner of the Powell-Douglas game today (Thursday) faces the winner of the Gillette-Jackson game in a 4 p.m. contest on Friday. The losers of those two games will face off in a 9:30 a.m. elimination game on Friday morning.

Other first-round district games in Casper today (Thursday) include Cody facing off against the Sheridan Troopers at 12:30 p.m. and the home-town Casper Oilers playing Lovell in the day's final contest at 7:30 p.m.

The district championship game is scheduled to take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. The district third-place game begins at 4 p.m., also on Saturday.

“Having the AA teams really doesn't change things for us,” said Jameson. “We're still looking to go there, win at least two games and get a spot for ourselves at the state tournament.”

Pioneer team notes

• Scotty Jameson leads Powell both on the mound and at the plate. The Arkansas State commitment is a perfect 10-0 as a starting pitcher this summer while boasting a .552 average at the dish with nine homers and 56 RBI's.

• Other team RBI leaders include Tyler Dahlgren (53) and Grant Geiser (51). Andrew Young is second on the team with six pitching victories and five home runs.

• He's not the biggest guy on the team, but Josh Cragoe has averaged getting hit by a pitch once every 8.9 at-bats this summer.