PORT ANGELES — More than 340 young baseball players and their families and coaches are expected to descend upon Port Angeles this week for the Northwest Washington Cal Ripken Baseball Tournament Championships.
The tournament will feature a total of 31 U9, U10, U11, U12 and U13 teams from all across northwest Washington, with most of the games at the Lincoln Park ballfields.
The tournament will kick off with an opening ceremony Wednesday at Civic Field at the Port Angeles Lefties game. Kids will be let into the field after 4:30 p.m. The game begins at 6:35 p.m. with the ceremony beforehand at roughly 6 p.m. All Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth players participating in the tournament also get in the game for free.
North Olympic Baseball and Softball board president David Melnick estimated that, including families and officials, the tournament will bring somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 people into the community this week.
Melnick said the last time the Cap Ripken north state championships were held in Port Angeles was roughly 20 years ago. The town and its ballfields have hosted major tournaments before, such as the state American Legion tournament last year.
Melnick said he started working on the preparations for the tournament last July.
“The state officials came out and took a look at our fields,” Melnick said. They were impressed enough to award Port Angeles the tournament.
There will be a concession stand at the games run by the Rotary Club and then three food vendor trucks from Southern Nibble, El Taco Loco and Drake’s. Dragon’s Brew Coffee Company will be providing coffee.
The tournament will begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. The U9 through U12 Cal Ripken teams will all play at the Lincoln Park fields, while the two U13 teams are actually Babe Ruth teams. One of those teams is the North Olympic Baseball U13 team. The U13 games will be across the street at Volunteer Field.
There will be a total of five local teams at the tournament, one in each age class.
The Port Angeles Youth Baseball 9U team plays Silverdale at 11 a.m. Thursday, and Moses Lake at 9 a.m. Friday. They also play Eastmont at 1 p.m. Friday.
The Port Angeles 10U All-Stars play at 8:30 a.m. Thursday against the MLYBA All-Stars 10U and the Ferndale Eagles 10U at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. They continue to play Friday with times and opponents to be determined.
The NOBAS 11U team plays the Silverdale 11U All-Stars at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the MLYBA 11U All-Stars at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the Lynden Lobos 11U at 10:30 a.m. Friday and the Ferndale 11U at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
The PAYB12U team plays the Eastmont All-Stars at 9 a.m. Thursday and the Sluggers 12U at 1 p.m. Thursday. They play the Moses Lake All-Stars at 9 a.m. Friday.
The 13U Babe Ruth team plays a team out of Lynden. They are the only two teams in this division with times still to be determined.
The semifinal games will be played at 11 a.m. Saturday with the finals 30 minutes after the conclusion of those games, roughly around 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
A full schedule of the games will be posted at the Lincoln Park ballfields.
