Common sense and the value of education.

Both might be considered missing in terms of recent high school baseball tournament scheduling.

In fairness, juggling a bunch of teams and finding available fields to play on can be challenging at times. But some of these recent venues, dates and/or times raise an eyebrow or two.

The WPIAL Class AAAA championship game was played at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday at Consol Energy Park in Washington. Only problem was, the game pitted northern neighbors and section rivals Seneca Valley and North Allegheny.

Yes, Consol Energy Park was a predetermined site and, no, the district had no way of knowing two teams from Pittsburgh’s northern suburbs would be in the game. But the WPIAL should allow for adjustments. Wait for the match-ups and then figure out where to play.

If your first choice of venue isn’t available, choose somewhere else.

That’s how every other round of WPIAL play is handled.

District 10 played a quarterfinal game involving Grove City and Strong Vincent out of Erie at 11 a.m. on a school day. And the game was played at Slippery Rock University’s Critchfield Park, a pretty good drive for the Erie contingent.

Do these kids really need to miss a full day of school to play an early-round district tourney game? There are plenty of days and fields out there to avoid such a situation.

Staying with District 10, its Class AAA title game between Grove City and Slippery Rock was played on Memorial Day — again.

That’s a holiday, folks.

High school teams shouldn’t even be practicing on a holiday, let alone playing for a district championship.

Why that game is played on that day — and why the PIAA allows it — is beyond me.

The first round sites for the PIAA Tournament are somewhat predetermined and probably shouldn’t be.

Karns City, the District 9 Class AA champion, wound up being the visiting team on its home field when the Gremlins took on WPIAL champion Beaver.

Slippery Rock, the District 10 Class AAA champion, had to travel to Erie’s Jerry Uht Park to play its first state tourney game, rather than stay in town and play at Critchfield Park.

Critchfield Park isn’t the Rockets’ home field, but it was deemed too close in the PIAA’s mind. So the Rockets had to travel more than an hour north to use their geographical advantage.

By the way, their opponent, Keystone Oaks, had to drive three hours to get to Jerry Uht Park.

Don’t things seem just a wee bit goofy here?

There are always going to be scheduling quirks and not every team or school is going to be happy with every venue, day or time it is told to play.

But a better job can be done in some of these cases.