NABF tourney begins at Cene today

July 13, 2017 at 12:09a.m.

14U World Series runs through Sunday at Struthers facility

All roads lead to Struthers as teams from all over, some as far as Canada, will be descending on Cene Park this weekend for the National Amateur Baseball Association’s 14U World Series.

Twelve teams will begin play today with a World Series champion being crowned Sunday afternoon.

This is the first time Cene Park has hosted the 14U World Series. Last year, the park hosted the 18U World Series. This year, Cene Park won bids to host both. The 18U World Series is next weekend.

“We’ve been a member of NABF for years,” Youngstown Class B 16U Commissioner and scheduler for the 14U World Series Bob Beam said. “We gave a bid at this year’s convention and they know what we do since we’ve had stuff in the past.”

There are three local teams in this tournament. Astro Falcons qualified by winning last year’s World Series, Baird Brothers qualified by being this year’s Class B champion and Roth Brothers qualified by winning a regional championship.

Other teams in the tournament come from other parts of Ohio, Michigan, New York and Ontario. That means a lot of players, coaches and families are visiting town the next two weekends.

“Hotels, restaurants, businesses – this is good for them,” Beam said. “We’ll have families here for the next two weekends. We got everyone checked in [Wednesday] and they’ll be here until at least Saturday.

The tournament consists of three pools of four teams. Teams will play everyone in their pool once and the top two teams, plus two wild-card teams, advance to a single-elimination tournament that begins Saturday evening.

Beam said this will be a big weekend to showcase Cene Park to the local community and those from out of the area.

“It’s been a great addition to the community,” Beam said. “The Cene family has always made sure kids always have a great place to play.”