The matchup is the same, but the location is different.

For the second consecutive season, the Albert Lea baseball team will play Tri-City United in the Subsection 2AA South semifinals.

The opening pitch is set for 5 p.m. today. It was scheduled for Tuesday, but rain forced the semifinal at Hayek Field — along with the section’s three other semifinals — to be pushed back.

Last year, the No. 2-seed Titans hosted the No. 3-seed Tigers, and Albert Lea scored the go-ahead run on a suicide squeeze in the eighth inning to win 3-2.

Although the victory was an upset according to the seeding, the Tigers were ranked No. 55 in Class AA in Minnesota-Scores.net’s Quality Results Formula, while the Titans were No. 92. Albert Lea went on to finish as the section runner-up after a 4-0 win over No. 8 QRF Holy Family Catholic in the consolation bracket and a loss in the section finals to No. 10 QRF Glencoe-Silver Lake, a team that took third place at the state tournament.

This year, the No. 20 QRF Tigers (11-10, 4-7 Big Nine) earned the No. 1 seed and enter the semifinals on a three-game winning streak. Over Albert Lea’s last four games, the team scored six or more runs, including a 13-0 win at NRHEG and a 14-6 victory over Maple River to cap the regular season.

“The bats have been going great,” said Tigers coach Joe Sczublewski.

No. 88 QRF Tri-City United (10-10, 5-9 Minnesota River), the No. 4 seed, enters the game after a 6-5 win over St. Peter in nine innings during the quarterfinals, a victory that snapped the Titans’ two-game slide.

Since the subsection semifinals were postponed, all teams in the section — north and south — will play the subsection semifinals and finals on back-to-back days. The subsection finals will be hosted by the high seed at 5 p.m. Thursday.

“It really depletes your pitching with lots of games in a short time,” Sczublewski said. “You’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

The Tigers have four pitchers who posted wins this season: Chris Enderson, Tyler Steele, Tristin Muilenburg and Jake Kilby. Enderson picked up the Tigers’ latest win in the subsection quarterfinals.

Although Tri-City United graduated some of its veteran players from last year, Sczublewski said the team returns left-handed pitcher Ryan Thompson, who faced the Tigers last year and is the only senior on the Titans’ roster.

The tournament is double elimination after the first round. If a team loses, it can go through the consolation bracket and play for the section title. However, double elimination would dictate that the team that won the consolation bracket would need to beat the winner of the championship bracket twice.