As a mid-summer treat for local youth baseball fans, the Babe Ruth Baseball 16-18 Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament hits the Syracuse area with a full slate of games from July 12 to 15.
The winner of this tournament joins seven other regional champions (New England, Midwest Plains, Southwest, Ohio Valley, Pacific Northwest, Southeast and Pacific Southwest) in Weimar, Texas from July 28 to Aug. 4 for the Babe Ruth World Series.
Nine teams are entered in the regional, including two local sides. One of them, called Western New York, is coached by Bishop Ludden’s Ted Klamm and includes a host of top local college and high school players.
Another team, made up of younger high school players, serves as the hosts and will meet Eastern New York Thursday at 10 a.m. in the opening round at Hopkins Road Park in Liverpool. The winner of that game takes on Western New York later that day at 5 p.m., also at Hopkins.
Six others – Pennsylvania, Northern New Jersey, Maryland, Southern New Jersey, Delaware and Metro New York – are in the field. All of them begin play on Thursday, too, either at Hopkins Road or at Van Duyn Field in Syracuse.
From Thursday’s quarterfinals, the double-elimination tournament breaks up into winners’ and losers’ brackets on Friday. Four teams are left by Saturday, with the survivors advancing to Sunday’s championship games, up to two if necessary, starting at noon at Hopkins Road.
Four current members of the Section III Class AA champions from Baldwinsville – Gabe Levanti, Scott Blewett, Pat Merryweather and Josh Savacool – will play. . Levanti just announced a verbal commitment to Virignia Tech for the 2013-14 school year.
Brett Charbonneau, just graduated from B’ville, is also on the Western New York team, joined by future Le Moyne teammates Zach Tucker, Pat Wright and Ryan O’Kane. Charbonneau was just named a first-team All-State selection with fellow B’ville grad Connor Martin, while Tucker earned second-team status and Levanti was a fourth-team selection.
Other local talent that will play in the tournament includes Chris Davis, Conor Nolan, Andrew Sanders, Alex Caruso, Ciro Frontale, Nick Pilotti, Joe Pokrentowski, Avery Brooks, Ryan O’Neill and Eric Hamilton.
