Before city baseball fans prepare for another intracity showdown between Lawrence High and Free State, the two teams have to win in the first round of the Class 6A regionals.

Lawrence High (11-8) will face Washburn Rural (9-9) at 2 p.m., followed by Free State (15-4) vs. Leavenworth (2-15) on the Firebirds’ field today. The winners will play in the regional championship game at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to the 6A state tournament in Wichita.

“There are 32 6A teams, and right now their goal is to be playing on May 26 in Wichita,” Lawrence coach Brad Stoll said. “We don’t want to have a big group hug and cry our eyes out on Thursday. We want to have a big group hug and not be checking stuff back in.”

The aggressive Lions batters likely will see Washburn Rural pitcher Parker Desjardins, who is 2-1 with a minuscule 0.29 earned-run average. Desjardins doesn’t have many decisions because of tenderness in his arm, which often forces him to miss starts. It will be a week since he last pitched. Desjardins has pitched 24 innings and struck out 19 batters this season. His specialty pitch is the breaking ball.

“He was on my K.C. Sluggers team when I was 16,” Lawrence senior first baseman Nick DeBiasse said of Desjardins. “We’re not going to change our approach. Our strategy is to go after the first pitch you like and can drive and to make sure you don’t miss it. We don’t want to let the best pitch go by in the first couple of pitches.”

Lawrence will start senior ace Daniel Green against Washburn Rural. Even though Green threw a two-hitter against Free State on May 9 for the first LHS victory against FSHS in five years, Stoll said the focus had to be on Washburn Rural first.

“We’ve got to throw our guy to get there,” Stoll said of the regional championship. “You’d love to have him to throw against Free State, but it doesn’t mean it will be automatic like last time. Our first priority is for Daniel to lock down Washburn Rural.”

If Lawrence advances, it likely would see Free State, which blasted Leavenworth, 23-3, at Kauffman Stadium on Monday.

Despite the lopsided result, Free State coach Mike Hill said the Firebirds couldn’t think automatically of victory. A year ago, he said the Pioneers jumped to a four-run lead in the first inning of regional play. Free State came back and won.

Free State will start juniors Caleb Gress, Cody Lown or Jordan Dreiling tonight.

“If we think we’ll have the same results as we did (Monday), we’re sadly mistaken,” Hill said. “Baseball’s a game where anything can happen.”

Offensively, Hill said the Firebirds had to challenge more outs. He said FSHS batters are hitting into lazy pop outs or striking out more than he’d like to see.

“K’s are part of the game, but when we make contact, we need to hit the ball hard and flat,” Hill said. “When you hit the ball up in the air, it’s simple – someone just has to catch it.”

Free State will carry a three-game winning streak into tonight’s game.

“Everybody talks about getting the back-to-back rings,” senior first baseman Ben Wilson said of Free State’s 2006 Class 6A state title. “That’s been our goal from the beginning, regardless of how many seniors we lost. I thought from the beginning of the season that we’d have a real good chance to get back to state and win it again.”