Hope tourney gives teams chance to test themselves
WOODBRIDGE — Several area teams will get an early chance to size up their district competition at the annual Eddie Hope Baseball Tournament.
The tournament features five Prince William County teams — host Hylton, Stonewall Jackson, Potomac, Woodbridge and Forest Park. Perennial contender West Springfield returns this year, as does Brooke Point. R.E. Lee-Springfield completes the field.
“The Fauquier Tournament got canceled, and we picked up Potomac,” said Bulldogs coach John Colantuoni. “We kept it local to a point — there were teams looking for places to play. But we’ve still got West Springfield, Lee and Brooke Point.
“It’s great for the kids, the local teams and the local kids, to see what the competition is.”
The four-day tournament begins this morning with a matchup between Lee and Brooke Point. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Each day, the games are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
After three days of round-robin play — four teams comprise each bracket — the two brackets will play each other on the fourth day. The fourth-place team from Bracket 1 will play the fourth-place team from Bracket 2, and so on.
The championship game is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Hosting 28 games over a five-day span isn’t an easy task. While Colantuoni handles much on the administrative end, the players’ parents help out with the little things that may go unnoticed by people on the outside.
“We can’t do it without the parental involvement,” Colantuoni explained. “We’ve just had great parental involvement doing the concessions and keeping score. It’s a lot to go through, but we’ve been getting great parental involvement. We always have plenty of volunteers.”
This year’s tournament will be dedicated to the heroes of Sept. 11.