The Premier Baseball Junior World Series is back in the area for a five-day span that will crown the top team in the organization.
Last year, the Austin Wings Black won the second World Series championship for the program with a win over the Bayside Yankees.
This year, teams trek to the Joplin area – including games in Neosho and Seneca – in a quest to crown the new champion.
Crowder College will be one of the eight host sites, including the Joplin Athletic Complex, Joplin High School, Joe Becker Stadium, Seneca Athletic Complex, Field of Dreams in Baxter Springs, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and Mickey Mantle Field in Commerce, Okla.
“It brings kids on campus to see our facilities and get them there,” said Crowder coach Travis Lallemand. “With our trip to the World Series we are looking to expand on recruiting. The kids, no matter the distance, I think it gives us advantage with them far from home to recruit them. We can recruit Texas with our field and our campus acting as a recruiting tool. This is where we got Johnny Hendrixson. He was a big difference maker on a team that had a lot of success.”
Hendrixson, the team’s starting center field this year, played on the McKinney Marshalls.
This year, Crowder will also serve as the host site for the consolation games, the first time that has happened.
“Having more quality teams, we are excited about that,” Lallemand said. “Getting kids on campus is half the battle. They have to have a good feel for the school then. You call a kid from Texas from Missouri, the reaction is it’s a Northern state. If they like it, and maybe they didn’t, you have a better opportunity if you have them on your campus later on in recruiting process.”
Play starts at 10 a.m. Wednesday at both Seneca and Neosho. After two days of pool play, teams will be re-pooled and consolation play and championship bracket play starts Friday.
There will be 40 teams coming from 10 different states to take part in the tournament.
For those familiar with USA Baseball and who long for the days of seeing top talent, you still can. Premier Baseball, as an organization, had 79 players taken in the recent Major League Baseball Player Draft.
Five players who took part in the tournament last year were taken in the first round or supplemental first round of this year’s draft. Headlining the list was Jameson Taillon, the No. 2 pick in the draft by Pittsburgh, played for Houston Kyle Chapman. Justin O’Conner, who played a game at Crowder last year, was drafted by Tampa Bay.
The supplemental draft featured four players drafted, including three that were high school players that played in this tournament last year — Toronto’s Noah Syndergaard, from the Arlington A’s; Atlanta selection Matt Lipka and St. Louis pick Tyrell Jenkins, who were both on the Dallas Mustangs.
