Taking many, but certainly not themselves, by surprise, the Gibault High School baseball team is blasting through the competition on their way to a state tournament chance.

The Hawks (22-11) have outscored their competitors 41-8 in all four of their post-season games, including Saturday’s 17-0 short-game victory over Mt. Olive in the Class 1A Carlinville Sectional Championships at Blackburn College.

But Hawks coach Andy Skaer says he is not at all surprised that his team has been winning games by an average of eight runs per game the entire season.

“Offensively going into the season we knew we were going to be pretty solid,” Skaer told the Republic-Times. “Hopefully we are getting hot at the right time.”

GHS surpassed Lebanon 4-1 Wednesday on their way to Saturday’s Sectional Championships in the semifinals — their lowest scoring game all post-season. They then went on to short-game Mt. Olive, 17-0, on their way to Tuesday’s Class 1A SIUE Super-Sectional title game to be played at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at 6 p.m. with junior Zach Neff expected to get the start.

To read more on Gibault baseball’s state tourney, pick up a copy of the award winning Republic-Times newspaper — on stands Wednesday. Or subscribe online today!

Below is a Class 1A state tournament bracket: