Pittsburg ready for Premier baseball

For the third year in a row, the Premier Baseball Junior World Series will come back to the four-state area.
Eight different ball parks will be graced with play from these 32 teams starting today and running through July 27. The locations are Baxter Springs Field of Dreams, Carl Junction High School, Carl Lewton Field, Crowder College, Jaycee Ballpark in Pittsburg, Joe Becker Stadium, Joplin High School and Seneca High School.
Pittsburg Post 64 head coach Mike Watt said that there will be a high-quality of teams coming to the area.
“Joplin does a very good job with this tournament,” Watt said. “They are coming from all over and we are playing a team from the Phoenix, Ariz. are and another team from San Antonio, Texas.
“They are all very top-notch teams and we are going to have our hands full.”
This will be the first year that Pittsburg will not only put a team in the 32-team field but also host a pool beginning today at JayCee.
“I just think that it is a great opportunity to play some of the best teams in the country and see how we stack up,” Watt said.
Pittsburg will host Post 64 but also host the South Texas Sliders (San Antonio, Texas), Rawlings Prospects (St. Louis, Mo.) and the Arizona Sliders (Phoenix, Ariz.)
“It is not just our pool that has that caliber of teams,” Watt said. “This is a high level tournament and we are very fortunate to be a part of it.”
Teams will be venturing from Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas to try and clench the title of Junior World Champions.
Baxter Springs All-Stars and the Pittsburg All-Stars will be two local contenders in the tournament.
This tournament is something that Watt is looking at as a tune up for the American Legion Kansas State tournament in Pittsburg next weekend.
“From the very beginning when they approached me about hosting a pool, I was excited about it and I thought it was a good opportunity to play in it because we would have about two weeks off before the state tournament,” Watt said.
The five days of demanding competition will begin with pool play with the top two teams in each bracket advancing to the championship round, and the bottom two teams in each bracket move on to the consolation round.
“We are going to see good pitching, good defense and good catching so we are going to have to play at a high level,” Watt said.
He added that it will be tough for Pittsburg playing teams with a greater pool of players to pick from.
“There is no real way of telling how we will come out of it,” “These teams have a lot more numbers to pull from and we are just a Pittsburg team with some area players on it,” Watt said.
Tickets will be available at the gates. Daily passes are $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, children six and under get in free. The daily passes will be good on day of purchase at all locations.
Tournament passes, which are good at all locations for the entire weekend, are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140