Look for the big guns to come out today.

With three days’ rest between Tuesday’s state semifinal round and today’s Class 5A state championship game, both Bend High (20-8 overall) and Sherwood (24-6) are expected to start their aces — Lava Bear senior Duke DeGaetano and Bowman junior Riley Moore — this afternoon at Volcanoes Stadium in Keizer.

DeGaetano, who is 6-1 with six complete games this season, earned victories in the Lava Bears’ first-round playoff game against Pendleton and in Tuesday’s semifinal win over Wilsonville. The stocky right-hander has a low 2.80 earned-run average during the playoffs and has struck out 12 batters over 14 innings. DeGaetano pitched one of his better games of the season Tuesday, fanning six while allowing just three hits over seven innings in a 9-2 semifinal victory at Wilsonville.

Statistically, Moore, who is also a right-hander, has been even more impressive. He has a record of 9-0 with a 1.61 ERA, striking out 68 hitters in 65 1⁄3 innings. Sherwood’s No. 1 starter was fairly pedestrian, though, in the Bowmen’s 5-4, 10-inning semifinal win over Redmond on Tuesday, allowing three runs on nine hits in six innings pitched.

“We’re going to run the best kids out there that give us the best chance of winning,” a coy Sherwood coach John Strohmaier said about who would start on the mound for his team today, though he added that Moore more than likely would get the ball.

While Bend High is making its first state title appearance since 1987 — when the Bears defeated Tigard 5-1 in the old AAA championship game for their first and only baseball crown — the Bowmen are back in the state final after winning the 5A championship in 2011.

“You get to this point, our kids have a lot of playoff experience in baseball and in football,” said Strohmaier, referencing Sherwood’s highly successful football program, which has made the 5A state finals in each of the past three seasons. “We’ve got one kid who’s played in five state championship games in his high school career. We’ve got another who’s played in four and a lot of kids have played in three. … Even though it’s a different sport for some of those (games), I don’t think there’s any substitution for playoff experience.”

Senior first baseman Jonah Koski leads a Lava Bear offense that has outscored its opponents 161-63 over its past 17 games, 15 of which Bend has won. Koski hit .555 with 21 RBIs in Intermountain Conference play this spring, and on Tuesday he went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to help Bend advance to today’s final. Leadoff hitter and center fielder Justin Erlandson has been the catalyst at the top of the order for the Bears, hitting .395 with a .536 on-base percentage while scoring a league-high 22 runs against IMC opponents.

Like Sherwood, Bend rolled into the 2013 season having lost in the state semifinal round the previous year.

“The offseason felt like it took nine years,” said Dalton Hurd, the Lava Bears’ junior third baseman. “It took forever. We wanted the season to start the next day (after losing in the semifinals). We wanted that chance again.”

The Bowmen may not hit the ball quite as well as Bend, but Strohmaier’s team finds a way to get on base. Against Redmond, Sherwood reached base nine times via walks and five times via hit batters. For the season, the Bowmen have a modest slugging percentage of .374 but boast a .424 on-base mark.

“I think they’ve got more dangerous hitters than we do,” Strohmaier said. “I think we’re more of a small-ball, put-pressure-on-you type of team.”

Senior Joe Balfour epitomizes Sherwood’s offensive approach, leading the team with a .562 on-base percentage. Balfour, who is hitting a team-high .427, has earned 20 walks this season against 13 strikeouts and has been hit by a pitch eight times.

The Bowmen and the Lava Bears are scheduled to start play at 1:30 today following the 4A championship contest between Henley and Newport. Later today, Sheldon and Clackamas face off for the 6A crown in a game set to start at 5 p.m..

“We’ve superseded last year’s (playoff level) and overcame one of the goals we didn’t get to do last season,” Bend coach Bret Bailey said, reflecting on this year’s state final run. “Now if we can accomplish our next goal, it’ll be a plus-plus year.”