Monday night at the ballpark but not for the professionals, on this night it was the semifinals of the Midget Division of the annual youth baseball tournament. The tournament started in the mid-1940s under the sponsorship of the local print media, there are three divisions: Midget-Midget (age 12 and under), Junior-Midget (14 and under) and the Midget which has played its championship at the ballpark for several years. The tournament is always booked around available dates when the Barnstormers are out of town, as a rule two of the quarterfinals are played on night #1 with the other half of the bracket the next night, the semifinals and championship follow on nights #3 and #4. This time around all four quarterfinals were played in an eight-hour marathon in the afternoon heat on Saturday from which I was absent. The Junior Tornado was there as the #8 seed, they faced the top seed and saw their season ended by a score of 5-3. For me personally it was fun to be involved with the club, it's something that probably wouldn't have been possible under regular circumstances but I'm glad it happened for one season at least. On Monday night in the semifinal doubleheader Hempfield defeated Donegal in the opener, Lititz eliminated top-seed Ephrata in the nightcap. In the championship game on Tuesday Lititz shut out Hempfield 4-0 to successfully defend the title they had won in 2019. The middle part of the week was quiet but the Stormers are back for a ten-day homestand starting on Friday night. Take care, thanks for reading.
