WHERE ARE THE FIELDS?
The tournament is using THREE different locations:

LYONS BALLFIELD
110 Park Avenue
Mertztown, PA 19539

FLEETWOOD HS FIELD <— We are here all day on Saturday
109 West Vine St
Fleetwood, PA 19522

TOPTON POOL FIELD*
100 Oak Alley
Topton, PA 19562

For the Topton field, please do not park in the alley along side of the third base side. You must utilize parking spaces for intended for the park OR parallel park on streets around the area other than Oak Alley. WHO IS COMING TO THIS ONE?
Kathryn “Bam” Baptiste
Makayla Calamita
Shiana DeAngelo
Tahner Gehringer
Haley Gravish
Veronica Heckman
Sara Hoover
Lizie Lopez (Saturday only)
Allison Mehlan
Ryan Smith
Amaris Torres

IS IT STILL TRUE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE THERE?
Sadly, yes. My efforts to get my niece to reschedule her wedding were unsuccessful. I will be watching on GameChanger! I’ll miss you guys!

Joe Calamita and Dwight Heckman will be in charge.

WHAT TEAMS ARE IN THIS TOURNAMENT?
There are (14) total teams. The official name of the tournament is “2023 USA Softball of PA 23U & Women’s State Tournaments.” Sunday the (14) teams will be split between the 23U teams from Pennsylvania (there are 9 of them), and the teams that are “Women’s teams” PLUS 23U teams from outside of Pennsylvania (there are 5 of them.)

So there will not be “Gold” and “Silver” brackets this week. One bracket of the (9) PA 23U teams, and then a separate bracket of the (5) other teams.

Strangely on Saturday, he mixed all (14) teams together for Pool Play.

Here are the teams.

(9) teams for PA 23U
> PA Ballhawks
> Flames
> PA Krunch
> Newtown Rock
> Pocono Pride Black
> Strikers-Netterville
> Strikers-Byrnes
> Tigers 23U
> Worth Prospects

(3) teams for PA Womens
> Lyons Spirit
> Stripes and Strikes
> Warriors

(2) teams for Out-of-State 23U
> Cage Academy Legends
> Gold Coast Hurricanes

WHEN DO WE PLAY SATURDAY?
8:00am vs. Strikers-Netterville (Fleetwood HS)
9:45am vs. Gold Coast Hurricanes (Fleetwood HS)
1:15pm vs. Flames 23U (Fleetwood HS)

So that’s play, play, sit, sit, play, sit.

There are 2 Strikers teams in this tournament. I’m pretty sure that the one we play first is the same one we beat in Game 3 of Pool Play in the last tournament.

Gold Coach Hurricanes is an example of how he mixed up pool play for some reason. GC Hurricanes is one of the out-of-state 23U teams that will not be in our Sunday bracket. I’m guessing this is the team we played 2nd in Pool Play in the first tournament.

Note that the location for Game 3 change since my original text to you guys. We are not playing Game 3 at Topton Pool instead of Lyons. So, yes, we won’t be at Lyons at all on Saturday.

WHAT TIME SHOULD WE ARRIVE?
As you know, I give everyone an extra 15 minutes for 8am start times, so please arrive by 7:15am, but please don’t be late. 45 minutes to get ready is the bare minimum.

HOW LONG ARE THE GAMES?
Pool play games are 1 hour and 30 minutes on Saturday, finish the inning and can end in a tie.

Bracket games are all also 1 hour and 30 minutes, finish the inning, EXCEPT for the Championship games which will be played in their entirety.

International tie breaker rules for any games that go extra innings.

WHAT ARE THE MERCY RULES?
Run rules are 15 after 3, 12 after 4, and 8 after 5.

CAN I BRING MY OWN FOOD?
At Fleetwood high school, yes. There is no concession stand there.

At Topton Pool you can bring your own food. There is also a concession stand there, although I don’t know if they plan to have it open.

At Lyons, no. No outside food is allowed inside the fence at Lyons. There IS a concession stand there. Note that is CASH only.

HOW DOES THE WEATHER LOOK?
Saturday = Mostly cloudy in the morning with a 20% chance of rain. Looks like you’ll have no issue getting the first 2 games in. 73 degrees at 7am, going up to 84 degrees by mid-afternoon (with a “feels like” of 90!) So it will be comfortable in the morning, but hot for that last game. They are also calling for the usual July hot/humid thunderstorms at any point in the afternoon. No wind all day to speak of.

Sunday = Cloudy with a threat of thunderstorms the entire day. Again, typical July thunderstorm threats. 69 degrees at 7am going up to only 79 degrees (“feels like” 82) by mid-afternoon, so significantly more comfortable on Sunday with the exception of a greater threat of thunderstorms.

WHAT UNIFORMS ARE WE WEARING?
Saturdays are always the white/red/black jerseys with black pants and cherry red socks. (Black or red belt if you wear a belt.)

Sundays are always the gold/black jerseys with black pants and black socks. (Black or gold belt if you wear a belt.)