Cene Park will be busy next 3 weeks

The Connie Mack state tourney is the first of several events at the baseball complex.

By JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

STRUTHERS — Players will be swinging with wood bats and not aluminum bats when the 47th annual Ohio State Connie Mack state tournament starts Thursday at Cene Park.

“This is the first year for wood bats. I just think the change was made for safety purposes,” said Scott Ruark, director of the 24-team tournament for players 18-years old and younger, including six teams from the Youngstown Class B League.

Ruark pointed out that in general most players “won’t hit a line drive as far and as hard with a wood bat. You can hit the ball farther and harder with an aluminum bat.”

The kick-off dinner for the tournament will be held tonight at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman starting at 6.

Heading area entries in tournament is Rondinelli Tuxedo, the Class B League champion. The other area teams are1080 Media, Astro Falcons, Wharmby Sports, Dave Sugar and OTN Performance ,which finished from runner-up to sixth place in the league, respectively.

Ruark said that the American Amateur Baseball Congress changed the bat composition rule to go to wood bats.

“We played aluminum bats all the way up to this season. The AABC changed the rule this year and all state, regional and world series tournaments followed to wood,” said Ruark, noting the national trend is to go to wood bats.

“A lot of teams in the Connie Mack tournament are from the East Coast and they already switched from aluminum to wood bats. I see it more and more.”

Ruark said that fewer teams are in the tournament this year.

“We ‘re down just a little bit from last year. We had 27 teams last year,” said Ruark, who is assisted by Paul “Scooter” Trgovac and Class B League team managers.

Ruark said it is not mandatory for the tournament champion and the second, third and fourth place teams to advance to the Connie Mack regional tournament in Cincinnati.

“The top four teams in the Mack state meet will have the option to continue play in the [regional], or they could choose to enter other tournaments,” said Ruark, noting that policy has been in effect for the last five years.

He said that Andy’s Niners of Cleveland won the state tournament last year.

The Mack meet will be one of five sandlot tournaments at Cene Park this month, including two NABF Regional wood-bat events.

The 16-and-under NABF Junior Regional and the 18-and-under NABF Senior Regional tournaments both will be held from July 23-26.

Three of the area Class B League teams — Rondinelli Tuxedo, 1080 Media and the Astro Falcons — also will be among eight teams competing in the NABF Senior Regional.

The Senior Regional champ will advance to the NABF Senior World Series in Jackson, Miss.

Three members of the Little b League, including champion Astro Falcons, are billed in the NABF Junior Regional. The other two entries are runner-up Roth Brothers and third-place Rondinelli Tuxedo.

The winner will qualify for the NABF Junior World Series in Northville, Mich.

Also from July 23-26, two other Little b teams — fourth-place Action Physical Therapy and fifth-place 1080 Media — will be among 11 teams entered in the Colt (15-16) Regional tournament at Cene Park that will use aluminum bats. The winner will go to the Zone tourney in Greensboro, N.C.

Rounding out the Cene Park tournament slate is the 20-team 18-under Continental Amateur Baseball Association (CABA) World Series from July 27 through Aug. 2 that will include the Astro Falcons and Rondinelli Tuxedo of the Class B League. The CABA meet also will use aluminum bats.

The 1080 Media Class B team is bypassing the CABA meet and instead will compete in the Palamino Zone Tournament in North Allegheny, Pa., from July 31-Aug. 3.

kovach@vindy.com