All summer long, the Lawrence Raiders baseball team has seen the down side of being the defending American Legion Class AAA state champion.

Carrying that title can be like lugging a ball and chain all over the region, where the Raiders went 31-14 playing a grueling regular-season schedule of mostly road games.

Now, the zone tournament is here, and that title will continue to hang over them like a speech bubble every time they play.

“There’s probably a target on our back,” infielder Paul Metzler said, “but I think we’ll be ready to play, because we know everybody will be coming after us, so it’s going to take a little more to get by.”

The Raiders will open action in a three-team zone tournament today in Lansing, where they’ll face the host Lansing Huskies at 7 p.m.

The Huskies are just 15-7 this season, thanks in part to several rainouts. The other team in the zone, the Blue Valley Mustangs, are 24-8 and get a first-round bye for being the top seed.

The Raiders have played 45 games this season, while the other two teams have played a combined 54. And while the strenuous summer has put a strain on Lawrence’s pitching staff — Ryne Jackson, Spence Chaney and John Parker are among the injured hurlers — most of the Raiders still feel that the schedule gives them an edge now that postseason is here.

“It’s only an advantage,” coach Reggie Christiansen said. “That’s why we schedule so many, so these kids have an opportunity to become better ballplayers. You have to play the game to become a better player.”

While the pitching staff is depleted, a week off from games sets the Raiders up nicely for this weekend, with Jake Hoover, Grant Meisenheimer, Tyson Corley and others ready to throw. The bats, of course, will be there too.

“We’re hitting the ball really well right now,” Taylor Martin said. “We got out of our slump, and our defense is doing a little better, too.”

Now it’s just a matter of playing to expectations — and with that pesky bullseye on their jerseys. The zone tournament is in double-elimination format, so no matter what the Raiders do tonight, they’ll play at least one game Saturday, too.

The winner of tonight’s game will play Blue Valley at 10 a.m. Saturday, while the loser waits and plays the loser of the winner’s game at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Get it? Don’t worry. However confusing the bracket might seem, it hasn’t clouded the Raiders’ goal for this postseason.

“It’s the same as last year,” Martin said. “We want to win a state championship.”