FCALBL tournament begins play tonight
The Fayette County American Legion Baseball League tournament play begins tonight at Hutchinson Field when Connellsville faces Smithfield-Fairchance in the play-in game.
Connellsville (4-8, 5-9), who finished fourth, and fifth-place Smithfield-Fairchance (2-10) play at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to play top-seeded Uniontown (11-1, 11-4) in the semifinals.
The lone semifinal game will be at noon on Saturday. Charleroi (8-4, 9-4) was to play Belle Vernon (5-7) in the other semifinal, but Belle Vernon forfeited, citing a lack of players.
The winner of the Uniontown semifinal plays Charleroi in the winner’s bracket on Sunday at 3 p.m. The loser of the Uniontown semifinal faces Belle Vernon at noon in an elimination game.
The two teams that lose in Sunday’s games will play Monday at 6 p.m. The winner of that game faces the winner of the winner’s bracket game for the title.
Uniontown has already secured a berth into the Region 6 tournament by virtue of winning the regular season title. The second team will be either the winner of the tournament championship or the runner-up should Uniontown be victorious.
The tournament needs to be completed by July 13 with the Region 6 tournament meeting on July 14.
“The Region 6 tournament will be held at Hardy Field in Beaver County. Brighton Twp. is the host team,” said Uniontown manager Brad Yohman. “Ron Popovich changed the format with six teams. They will be split into two three-team pools and the top four teams advance to the semifinals.”
Pitching is really at a premium with the tight tournament schedule.
“It’s tough. Legion playoffs are different. You play every day. The rest rules are more expansive than in high school,” explained Yohman. “You certainly have to be economic with your pitching.
“If you’re able to end a game in five innings, that’s two innings of pitching you’ll have to utilize (for another game).”
Yohman is happy the local tournament is back after a couple year hiatus.
“I’m looking forward to it. We didn’t have it last summer because we had to get (league) games in because of rainouts. You have to play 12 games to get into the regionals,” said Yohman. “It’s been a couple years with the Covid cancellation.
“It’s good to have this back.”
There is no charge to attend the games.