It’s the fourth year for the event and its director can easily say it’s the biggest ever. And for fans of baseball, it’s certainly good news.

 

This Friday and Saturday, the Fourth Annual Junior Varsity Baseball Challenger – 2016 edition – hosted by Bridgeport High School will get underway. Not only will the tournament feature the largest field in its still relatively young history, but it will also be at three different venues for the first time.

 

“This is definitely the largest field that we’ve assembled with 10 teams, mostly from out of the area, but we could have had 13 or 14 teams in it,” said Tourney Director Robert “Bobby” Marra. “We eventually had to find a cutoff point or we would have had teams playing at field all over the area and that can be hard to manage.”

 

There’s one other first this year. This week’s event will mark the first year an out-of-state baseball team will take part as a Pennsylvania squad is participating.

 

This year, games starts on Friday at 4 p.m. Contests will be held at Bridgeport High School, the Bridgeport Recreation Complex and for the first time ever at Lewis County High School.

 

“The key is getting all the teams a three-game guarantee and with the WVSSAC not allowing games on Sunday you end up needing an extra venue with the additional teams. With Lewis County in the field, going there seemed like the best place to go,” said Marra.

 

On Saturday, games start at 9 a.m. All game Saturday are at the Bridgeport Recreation Complex and from the morning games until 3 p.m., there will be games played on both fields at all times. The championship game is scheduled for 5 p.m.

 

Bridgeport is the only Class AA school in the field. Jayvee Coach Brett Hathaway has helped the Indians through another busy schedule as the program could approach 25 games played if they make it to the title game and no other games are rained out.

                           

It’s been very competitive in the past and we expect the same this year,” he said. If you look at the teams that are coming, they’re all ‘AAA’ schools and they’re also among the largest schools in the state with some of the best baseball programs.”

 

Along with Bridgeport, the rest of the field includes Jefferson, Parkersburg South, Elkins, Brooke, Lewis County, Morgantown, Hampshire, Washington, and Susquehanna Township of Pennsylvania. Lewis County, Morgantown and Washington will compete at the Minutemen’s field Friday, while the rest of the teams will be at the two venues in Bridgeport. Due to the travel, several teams will be spending the night in Bridgeport.

 

The cost to attend is $5. The ticket will get you into all the games at any location on Friday and a $5 ticket will allow you to watch all the games at the Recreation Complex Saturday. Marra said there will be concessions available.

 

Click HERE for the tournament bracket.