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As the WIAA announced last week at its monthly meeting, the Board of Control has made changes to the baseball tournament series, most notably the summer baseball tournament.

“Ultimately, the Board approved an Executive Staff amended recommendation to retain the summer baseball season and tournament with alterations,” The WIAA said on its Web site.

With the number of teams participating in summer baseball dropping to 56 teams, the Board of Control did move to continue sponsoring a playoff series, but the state tournament will have a complete new look.

As it stands now, Stevens Point’s Bukolt Park will not be the site of the tournament. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of the now one-day, three-game tournament taking place there, as it has happened in the past, but a change seems imminent.

The move to the three-game one-day tournament is also a big change as the sectionals used for the last few years have been merged into four 14-team sectionals.

The state tournament is set for July 20. As for the site, there has been some speculation, but with all of the teams being on the eastern side of the state, it would presumably be in that area. One could look into the fact that Regner Park in West Bend, which hosted the state tournament before it was moved to Stevens Point, is not hosting a sectional, but it’s too early to tell, at this point.

While the WIAA was at it, they realigned things, too. Check out the bracket, here.

It certainly creates some interesting matchups leading up to the state tournament, while opening the door for some others who had run into power houses year after year.

The debate on which sectional is best could go on forever, but the thought of a seeding meeting including the likes of West Bend West, Cedarburg, Menomonee Falls and Arrowhead, which have all sniffed conference titles in the last two seasons could make things interesting.

On the spring side, most of the 12 teams from the summer Dairyland Conference will land in either Division 3 and 4.