Pleasant Home (10-7) blazed through the opening round of the AHSAA Class 1A playoffs, but the Eagles will face more of a challenge in round two when they hit the road today for a best-of-three series with J.U. Blacksher (19-10).

J.U. Blacksher allowed just five in their two-game sweep of McKenzie.

“They have three good pitchers that they lean on,” Pleasant Home head coach Chris Mason said. “Hitting, they are like most 1A teams, they can hit the ball well some games and then some games they don’t.”

Pleasant Home had an offensive surge in the first round, scoring 25 runs. The Eagles only allowed five runs in their two-game sweep of Ellwood Christian.

“We have to take their strengths away from them,” Mason said of the Eagles’ key to victory. “If we can put some pressure on their defense and pressure on the bath paths, we can win. We played them twice this year and beat them once, so we know that we can beat them.”

Mason said the Eagles have spent the week working on base running, bunting and making routine plays.

“We have worked a lot on small ball this week,” Mason said. “We have three pitchers that can match them at anytime, we just have to make the routine plays behind them. If we make the routine plays, we keep the game close, and if it’s close at the end, you never know what can happen.”

Game one begins at 3 p.m., and game two begins at 5 p.m. If necessary, game three will be Saturday at noon.