Its district tournament time for high school sports with the action kicking off tonight in Rhea County as the 5-AAA baseball post-season gets under way.Playing under a new format this year, the top three seeds advance to a best-of-3 semifinal series while the other four teams battle it out for the final Saturday spot.Fourth-seeded Walker Valley (17-13, 6-6) will open the tournament at 5 this evening in an elimination game against No. 7 McMinn County (7-25, 1-11).

Cleveland High (18-12, 6-6) comes into the event at the fifth seed and will face host Rhea County at 8 tonight in a loser go-home game.Tonight’s winners will square off Friday evening at 7 in Evensville to see who advances to face top-seeded Ooltewah (25-8, 10-2) at 1 Saturday afternoon.Third-seeded Bradley Central (19-12-2, 7-5) will square off against No. 2 Soddy-Daisy (26-5, 9-3) at 4 Saturday afternoon in the first game of their best-of-3 series.

The second game of the semifinal series will be held Monday with the Bears and Trojans playing at 5 and the Owls taking on their opponent at 8.If a third game is needed in either or both series, it will be played Tuesday evening with the district title to be decided on Wednesday.The District 5-AA tournament will be a straight double-elimination event with games to be played at the home of the higher seed.

Sequoyah will travel to Sweetwater Friday for the play-in game with the winner squaring off against top-seeded McMinn Central Saturday.That same day second-seeded Polk County will host No. 3 Meigs County at 1 p.m. with the Saturday winners and losers squaring off in Monday games.The loser’s bracket final will be held Tuesday with the championship to be decided Wednesday.Polk County comes into the event with a 19-12 overall record, including a 6-2 mark in district play.

Junior Jared Allen was recently voted as the District Player of the Year while Wildcat teammates Michael Hargrove, Tyler Lee and Colin Wimberly were selected to the All-District Team.Allen has also been named to Team Tennessee by the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association and will participate in the Junior Sunbelt Tournament in Oklahoma this June.The District 5-AAA softball (see Walker Valley-Bradley Central softball story this page for full details) and soccer tournaments also get under way Friday.

On the soccer pitch, fifth-seeded Bradley Central will travel to Soddy-Daisy Friday evening at 7 with the winner to square off against top-seeded Cleveland at the first of the week.Seventh-seeded Walker Valley will open against No. 2 McMinn County in the single-elimination event.