The ocean may not be as inviting as it looks, but the weather is more conducive to playing baseball than either Jefferson or Washington found in the Eastern Panhandle or way across the state in Hurricane.

Myrtle Beach is this week’s locale for both county high school baseball teams. And while the water might still be only about 55 degrees at least the air temperature will reach into the 70s and give the players a chance to discard their heavy clothing and coats that were necessary for many of the early-season games back home.

Jefferson carried an unbeaten 7-0 record into its games against unseen competition. Having won for the sixth and seventh time against Wheeling Park and defending state champion, Hurricane, last week in games played at Hurricane High School.

Prior to beating the Patriots and Redskins, Jefferson had been perfect against Martinsburg, Musselman, Woodgrove, Hedgesville and St. James.

In Myrtle Beach, Jefferson played Westhill (New York), Hammonton (New Jersey) and Chancellor (Virginia) before being bracketed with teams with a similar record on Friday and possibly on Saturday.

Washington had a 4-0 record after winning easily against St. Maria Goretti, Martinsburg, Spring Mills and Frankfort. Then came a loss to then-unbeaten Millbrook (Virginia). The Patriots downed Hedgesville, 8-3, and had only one game left in the Panhandle before leaving for Myrtle Beach.

That final game before the week in South Carolina was a game at Spring Mills, a team the Patriots had tamed earlier by a 20-2 count. Spring Mills exacted some revenge for that long loss by posting a 5-0 win over Washington.

Taking its 5-2 overall record to Myrtle Beach, the Patriots had games in its “Loris B” bracket against Nardonia (Ohio), Bishop Grimes (New York) and Atlantic Shores Christian (Virginia) before settling into a Friday game against a team with the same tournament record it has. Should the Patriots win on Friday, April 10 they will also play again on Saturday in the weeks finale.

The massive tournament actually has 15 four-team brackets and draws schools from West Virginia like Logan, Spring Mills, Musselman, Sherman, Clarksburg Notre Dame, Buckhannon, Greater Beckley Christian, Trinity Christian, Pike View, Hampshire, Martinsburg and Independence.

Jefferson and Washington will face each other for the first time this season on Tuesday, April 21, when they play at Washington at 4:30 p.m.

Myrtle Beach and its steady baseball-weather temperatures will be only a memory by then . . . and the infighting leading to the Sectional championship and possible Region title will be uppermost in everybody’s mind.