The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford will be host to one of the nation’s top showcase baseball events this weekend with the Prep Baseball Report New York East/West Battle coming to town.
A three-day event set for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the East/West Battle will feature 37 teams from across New York state and Canada with two age brackets, 14-15 and 16-17. The Pitt-Bradford Kessel Athletic Complex will be one of seven sites, which include St. Bonaventure, Houghton College, Stayer Park in Allegany, N.Y., and Bradner Stadium, Forness Field and the Olean High School in Olean.
The tournament is being sponsored by Prep Baseball Report, a national scouting service which hosts similar events around the country.
“The goal of the tournament is to provide players an opportunity to not only get good competitive summer baseball, but to showcase local college campuses and what they have to offer,” said Charlie Karstedt, Assistant Director of Prep Baseball Report NY.
“This is a chance for players to play on college campuses and give them a feel for what a collegiate facilities may be like while also providing college coaches an opportunity to recruit potential student athletes. There is expected to be a lot of college coaches coming from the northeast area to see this tournament.”
Pitt-Bradford will be hosting seven games, one in the 14-15-year-old division, and six in the older division.
Each tournament team gets a four-game guarantee (weather permitting) with Sunday being a playoff and consolation day. All games will be 7 innings with a two-hour time limit, with the exception of the championship games.
Many of the teams are travel teams, but not all, says Pitt-Bradford site supervisor and tournament director Chris Gresham.
“Some of the teams are with development organizations,” said Gresham, who is also an assistant coach at Clarion University. “They’re coming from programs that are interested in improving baseball players while not necessarily looking to bring just trophies at the end. Their interest is to make players better and to, hopefully, get them recruited.”
Tournament play will begin Friday at 2:30 p.m. with the initial game at Olean’s Bradner Stadium in the 14-15 division between the Ontario Blue Jays East and Full Circuit Power 2019s. In all, 56 pool-play games are scheduled leading into Sunday’s 15-16 division championship playoff bracket (times, sites tba).
The tournament games will be covered by the PBR NY scouting staff, meaning pitchers’ velocities, and home-to-first times, and general scouting reports will be written on
players from throughout the weekend.
“We’re looking to a great tournament weekend and are extremely grateful for the help and support we’re getting from Pitt-Bradford and for them allowing us to utilize their facilities,” Karstedt said.
Following are the scheduled games for the Pitt-Bradford Kessel Athletic Field Complex site:
Friday, June 17
16u/17u Showcase
4:45 p.m.: New Era 16u vs. Titans 16u
6:45 p.m.: New Era 16u vs. Diamond Pro Hurricanes 17u
Saturday, June 18
14u/15u Showcase
8 a.m.: Ontario Blue Jays East vs. Upper Deck 14u
15u/16u Showcase
10:15 a.m.: New Era 17u vs. Padres 17u
12:30 p.m.: Padres 17u vs. WNY Prospects
2:45 p.m.: WNY Renegades vs. New Era 17u
5 p.m.: WNY Renegades vs. WNY Prospects
