When director David Mickey Evans gets into a pitching/hitting/fielding rhythm in the game scenes of his true-story baseball flick The Final Season about a scrappy small-town Iowa high school team facing the end of an era, you can feel Evans' love for the sport the way one of those proud parents did rooting for their kid from the bleachers.

Unfortunately, the off-diamond scenes are a woeful mixed bag of cornbelt sanctimony and predictably plowed drama, built around a devilish, state-enforced merger with a more populous county that threatens to kill a long-winning baseball tradition in the teeny farm community of Norway, Iowa.

The Final Season (Yari Film Group) Starring Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, Rachael Leigh Cook. Directed by David M. Evans. Rated PG. Time 113 minutes.