ONTARIO — The second annual Austin’s Alliance Baseball Classic is scheduled at four local sites this weekend, June 22-23.
The tournament was inaugurated last year by Commitment 2 Kids, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Worthington that, according to its charter, “sponsors activities that bring together youth and their families from differing backgrounds in the hope of breaking down walls and replacing them with bridges of understanding.”
The tournament is named for Austin Vertrees, who played baseball at Big Walnut High School in Sunbury, as well as at the college level and in wood bat leagues in Ohio. Vertrees’ love for baseball made the Austin’s Alliance Baseball Classic a natural fit.
Vertrees battled depression and ultimately turned to drugs, which led to his untimely death in 2015. He had a dream of helping young people avoid his circumstances and C2K wants to complete his work by raising money through Austin’s Alliance of Athletes.
Two of the sites for this weekend’s tournament are in New Washington — Buckeye Central High School and New Washington Park — with Colonel Crawford High School and Ontario High School rounding out the locations.
Each site is assigned three teams from the 12-team field. The three will play each other once on Saturday with the teams from Buckeye Central and New Washington Park being seeded 1-6 based on Saturday’s results. The same format will be used for the six teams at Colonel Crawford and Ontario.
The tournament continues Sunday with a single-elimination format culminating with a championship game at Ontario at 5:30 p.m.
Game times are 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday at all sites. Teams playing at North Robinson are Colonel Crawford, Wynford and the Mid-Ohio Bullets, a Mansfield area combined team. At Buckeye Central High School will Buckeye Central, Lakota and Port Clinton.
New Washington Park will host Seneca East, Huron and the Seneca Sasquatch from Tiffin. Ontario will have Ontario, East Canton and a team to me named.
Local game times on Saturday are Colonel Crawford vs. Wynford at 9 a.m. at North Robinson and Buckeye Central at Lakota at 2 p.m. at Buckeye Central High School.
Admission per day is $5 for adults and $4 for students. Admission is good for all locations.
One perk for the teams involved in this year’s tournament is the opportunity to win a grant from C2K for the schools they represent.
Jim Glauer, long-time athletic director at Crestline High School and current assistant baseball coach at Colonel Crawford is the tournament director. For more information, contact Glauer at 419-543-1740.
Buckeye Central baseball and football head coach, Chad Jensen, is the site coordinator at both Buckeye Central High School and New Washington Park. Ontario head baseball coach and incoming athletic director, Jeff Fisher, is the site coordinator at Ontario.
Local connections to the executive board of C2K include former Bucyrus High School principal John Bean, Crestline native Paul (Rocky) Alt and Stephanie Fisher of Ontario.
C2K also sponsors Youth Sports Programming, which mentors youth through several sports interests, Character Champions for Life, which allows coaches and players to help youth toward a meaningful life and Team Monica, designed to support single parents.