For the fourth time in the last six years, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will play host to the best Little League baseball teams in Pennsylvania.
Pitt-Bradford will be the site of the 2018 Pennsylvania Little League 9-11 Baseball State Championships beginning on Saturday, July 21. Eight teams from across the Keystone State will compete in the double-elimination competition for the chance to advance to the Eastern Regional Tournament later this summer.
Bradford Regional Little League volunteers and members of the Pitt-Bradford maintenance crew completed work earlier this week on converting the softball field at the Kessel Athletic Complex into a regulation Little League baseball field.
“Pitt-Bradford has been nothing but great allowing us to convert their softball field into a baseball field,” District Administrator Barry Bacha said. “They’ve opened their doors for three of the four tournaments. We can’t thank them enough for the hospitality they’ve provided.”
The tournament will begin on Saturday with four games throughout the day, followed by four more on Sunday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and the championship game on Thursday.
Admission to all games are free of charge. There will a trolley service provided beginning an hour before the day’s first game and running until an hour after the final game.
Pitt-Bradford will also host a kickoff banquet on Friday, July 20, at 6 p.m. Dinner will be provided to all team members, coaches, and volunteers, while a coin flip will determine the matchups of Saturday’s games.
Bacha credits the tireless work of the numerous volunteers who help to make the tournament possible, including the host families who assist and serve as liaisons to the teams coming from out-of-town.
“They’re a great help: if a kid needs a new pair of spikes or a new pair of batting gloves, they can tell them where the local sports stores are,” he said. “Those families… continue to come back year after year. They look forward to this. They make good friends and they help these teams out a lot while they’re here.”
As far as the on-field product is concerned, don’t expect as many fireworks as in years past. The new wood-like bats implemented at the youth levels in 2018 have reduced the number of (relatively) tape-measure shots.
“Little League changed the bat rules this year, so there probably isn’t going to be as much offense as we’d like,” Bacha said. “We’ll see some home runs but it won’t be like years past when they’re launching them over the scoreboard, that’s for sure.”
Among the major sponsors for this year’s tournament are: Zippo, Sheetz, SuperUser Technology, Bradford City Water Authority, Kessel Construction.
