Powell opens against Idaho champs FridayRelax and enjoy the ride. Regardless of whether you're talking about the eight-hour trek from Powell to Salt Lake City, the atmosphere of participating in a regional tournament, or being a fan in the stands, it sounds like good advice. For Pioneers head coach Mike Jameson, it's practically mandatory.

“I don't know a whole lot,” said Jameson, who finds himself taking his team to Northwest regional play just one month after unexpectedly assuming the head coach's role.

Barely 36 hours before the Pioneers were scheduled to depart Powell for Salt Lake City, Jameson was still scrambling to get information about the tournament or to correct information he thought he previously had.

Case in point, the Pioneers spent the weekend under the impression that they would be playing Anchorage, Alaska, at 7 p.m. on Friday in their opening-round contest. That would have been good news given the fact that Powell's last two regional tournament wins came against the Alaska state champion in 2000 and 2001.

On Tuesday, Jameson finally laid his hands on a tournament bracket, only to discover that his team was not playing at 7 p.m. Nor were they playing the Alaska state champions. Powell's regional tournament will actually begin in the 4:30 p.m. game against the Idaho state champion, the Bonneville Bees, whose identity remained unknown until midday Wednesday.

“It's a little frustrating, because you want to know more about who you're facing and to have some stats or a scouting report,” said Jameson. “Everyone's kind of in the same boat though.”

So what sort of strategy does one employ when preparing for an unknown opponent?

“Just play hard,” said Pioneers third baseman Tyler Dahlgren, who ranks second on the team with 64 RBI's this season. “Keep doing what we've been doing.”

That's sound strategy according to at least one Powell resident who knows better than most. Powell High School football coach Jim Stringer directed the Pioneers to their 2000 regional tournament appearance in Lewiston, Idaho.

“The biggest thing is you can't let the magnitude of the games get to you,” said Stringer. “If you go in there and try to do too much, you'll throw your swing off or make a few errors. The key is to just stay within yourself, play within yourself and do the things that got you to this level.”

For the Pioneers, that means continuing to hit the ball with authority and scoring runs.

Powell takes an offense averaging 8.8 runs per contest to Utah. That output barely registered a hiccup despite the step up in competition at the recently-completed state tournament.

All-state selections Grant Geiser, Gianluca Giarrizzo and Scotty Jameson set the table atop the Pioneers' batting order. The trio has accounted for more than 43 percent of Powell's runs this season and is batting at better than a .500 clip for the season.

First baseman Colter Bostick, typically the five-spot in the Pioneers batting order, has been on fire in the postseason. Since beginning the trip to Casper for district play two weeks ago, Bostick has a batting average of .419 to go along with three home runs and 10 RBI's, both team bests over the last eight games.

The Pioneers left Powell this morning (Thursday). The team is scheduled to appear at a tournament banquet Thursday night before starting play on Friday. Powell will play in the third of four opening-round games.

The winner of the Idaho-Powell contest will face the winner of Friday's first-round game between the Washington and Utah state champions at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night. The losing team in both those games will pair up in a 4:30 p.m. competition.

The double-elimination tournament runs through Aug. 11.

Complete coverage of Powell's stay in Utah will appear in next week's paper. We'll also be in Utah posting blog entries from the regional tournament to help area fans keep up to date on the Pioneers' quest for a World Series berth.