The Palo Alto High School baseball team (25-6) will take on the Evergreen Valley Cougars (11-14), at 4 p.m. this Wednesday March 16 at Paly, to open up the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

The Vikings look to rebound from a disappointing loss to the Los Altos Eagles (21-8) in the SCVAL De Anza Division Finals, as the Eagles took the last two games to take the series, 2-1.

Despite the tough out, the Vikings were surprisingly chosen as the one-seed in this tournament, ahead of the Western Catholic Athletic League powerhouse St. Francis Lancers (24-4-1), who are also ranked by MaxPreps.com as the 17th-best team in the country.

The Vikings and the Cougars clashed before this year in a preseason, non-conference game when the Vikings won 5-1. If they can match their play from the first meeting and defeat the Cougars, the Vikings will face the winner of the game between the ninth-seeded Santa Teresa Saints (14-10) and the eighth-seeded Bellarmine Bells (14-14).

Check back for game coverage. We will be tweeting throughout the game (follow us @thepalyvoice).