Opp’s Dixie Majors will be looking for a three-peat as the Bobcats start play in the Alabama Dixie Majors 2014 State Tournament this afternoon in Selma.

The Bobcats overcame adversity at their district tournament to climb through the loser’s bracket after suffering a first-round loss to Greenville.

Opp Majors coach Holt Parker said he hopes his team is “peaking” at the right time.

“I think with our pitching we have — we have more than last year when we won it — I think our pitching will give us a chance to hopefully win it,” Parker said.

Parker was referring to the skills of Russell Moseley, John Bess, Colt Harrell and Ethan Davis, to name a few.

The Bobcats will be joining an eight-team field and will be playing in a double-elimination formatted tournament.

The other teams playing in the tournament are Prattville, Bellingrath, E. Montgomery Tuscaloosa, Greenville, Auburn and Selma.

For the most part of the season, Opp had trouble getting its bats around.

Parker admitted that it’s still a “question mark” going into state.

“We did have some timely hits in the district tournament,” he said. “If we can just get some timely hits, we can get runners in scoring position and give ourselves a chance with our pitching.”

The object of the state tournament for the Bobcats is to stay in the winner’s bracket, because when a team falls in the bottom bracket, it has to play more games to come back and win it.

When asked who he thinks is the team to beat, Parker said it seems to always be Auburn.

“I’m not sure, but I feel like that we’ll have a target on our backs beings that we’ve won this tournament the past couple of years,” Parker said.

Opp will play E. Montgomery at 12:30 p.m. today in the first round. The winner’s bracket finals are slated for Saturday at 7 p.m. with the championship slated for Sunday morning at 10. The if-necessary game is also on Sunday.

Parker said everybody’s except one player is ready to go. He said the one player, Brady Jowers, had Tommy John surgery, but can throw if he needs to.

“From my perspective, I’m happy for the guys,” Parker said. “We got behind in the district tournament, but we came out of the loser’s bracket and had a come-from-behind victory against Greenville.

“I hope that this will be a memorable experience for our guys,” he said.