For the last five years, the winner from Region 1B has gone on to play in the South Dakota high school baseball championship game.

Once again, the teams from the region are poised to make a run at another state title.

“Our region is tough,” said Mount Vernon/Woonsocket/Sanborn Central coach Derrion Hardie, whose team lost in the state championship game two years ago. “Whoever wins the region has definitely earned it.”

Last year, Beresford — which is in a cooperative with Centerville this year — played in the state championship game. In 2008 and 2007, Parkston played in the title game, and Vermillion played for the championship in 2006.

Bon Homme, Beresford, Vermillion and Dakota Valley make up the East Division of Region 1B, and MV/W/SC, Parkston, Wagner/Avon and Corsica/Stickney/Armour/Plankinton round out the West Division. Many of the teams open their playoff push tonight at different locations around the state.

Bon Homme is the top seed in the West Division and got through its first round game, 10-0 over Dakota Valley, Tuesday to improve to 9-2 on the year. Hardie said Bon Homme is a “top five team” in the state.

But after what happened last year, Bon Homme coach Gary Kortan just wants his team to take the playoffs one game at a time.

“I think our biggest test is the game in front of us,” said Kortan, whose team will face the winner of Beresford and Vermillion with the date yet to be determined. “Vermillion and Beresford have had good teams in the past and put up a good battle.

“We are trying to overcome our failures from last year as the top seed. We got upset by Beresford, and that is motivating us to not let it happen again.”

Beresford is 8-3 and Vermillion is 4-8.

Corsica/Stickney/Armour/ Plankinton’s experienced squad finished the year 6-4 and earned the top seed in the East Division. The Express’ roster has “pretty much the same guys” from Corsica’s 2009 teener team that won the championship, according to coach Bob Bamberg.

“We have some good experience,” he said. “We have a pretty good hitting lineup and our pitchers have been throwing strikes. We know what it takes to get it down, and it’s not going to be an easy road.”

C/S/A/P plays the fourth seed Wagner/Avon at 7 p.m. in Corsica. Wagner/Avon finished with a 4-6 record, but Bamberg is not taking Wagner/Avon lightly.

“We were down there last week, and we actually came from behind to beat them in the seventh inning,” he said. “They weren’t a pushover … I think anybody can win it.”

Wagner/Avon first-year head coach Cassius Kocer said he has worked to change the atmosphere with the team.

“Wagner’s teams in the past have struggled and winning hasn’t always been a part of their season,” he said. “I laid it down that we would work on fundamentals and they took to it. I have been phenomenally impressed with everything they did.

“We are going into it with the mentality that we aren’t going to hold anything back. They have a lot of confidence that they can beat any team on any given night.”

Parkston finished the year 4-6, but it had a 3-3 record in the division and beat M/W/SC in a head-to-head battle to earn the second seed. Parkston hosts MV/W/SC at 6:30 p.m. today.

Parkston coach Tim Alley said the team has played good ball to end the season.

“We have been hitting better, and it comes down to pitching and error-free ball,” he said. “That’s been the key, when we have played well, we have played error free ball. We are going to have to play some top ball.”

MV/W/SC also is looking to play error-free ball. The Outlaws finished the regular season 8-6.

“If a team’s going to beat us, we want it to be because they beat us and we didn’t beat ourselves,” he said. “We haven’t played one team that hasn’t outright beat us. Every loss we have had is because we beat ourselves with either mental or physical mistakes.”

Even though Region 1B has put a team in the state title the last five years, Hanson County coach Bryce Holter thinks Region 2B has some pretty good teams.

“We probably have one of the tougher regions in the state,” he said. “We play Madison and go from there.”

Hanson County is 5-3 and travels to Madison and plays at 5 p.m. today.

In Region 3B, McCook Central/Montrose/Canistota is the third seed with a 6-6 record and plays at Garretson at 4:30 p.m. today.

Platte-Geddes/Dakota Christian is the top team in Region 4B at 9-2 and hosts South Central — which had an 0-8 record — at 7 p.m. today in Platte. Winner/Colome is the second seed and finished 6-6. It faces 1-8 Chamberlain/Lyman at 7 p.m. Friday in Winner.