Yes, even America's favorite pastime is adding a fourth class on the state prep level. The Minnesota State High School League expanded from two to three classes for the 2000 season. Now 16 years later the state tournament will have doubled in size to 32 teams. Games are scheduled for June 16, 17 and 20.

Easy! Just figure out the winner of Section 2 in Class 4A. Defending state champion Chanhassen is in the super section, which also includes Bloomington Jefferson, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Edina, Minnetonka, Prior Lake and Shakopee. Only Edina and Prior Lake were below .500 last season, and they both wound up with a double-digit number of victories.

The 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes are headlined by Division I pitching prospects. It could be a year of plenty of small ball to try and get on the scoreboard. "It's the year of the pitcher," Prior Lake coach Greg Nesbitt said. "It's going to be hard to score runs. There are going to be a lot of low-scoring games."

A new state champion is assured in Class 1A because two-time defending champion New Life Academy has been moved up to Class 2A. St. Cloud Cathedral has won the Class 2A crown back-to-back years and three of the last five seasons. Both programs suffered key graduation losses.

The past four years haven't produced many close encounters in the title tilts in all three classes at Target Field. It's been mostly due to one team not being able to produce any offense. Seven of the 12 finals, including all four in Class 3A (now Class 4A), have been shutouts. In two other finals, the losing team has only scored one run.