Coach Marcus Caldwell, left, and Mayor Warren Gooch at the NABF World Series in Oak Ridge on Thursday, July 16, 2015. Caldwell is assistant head coach for Oak Ridge High School baseball. (Photo courtesy Greta Ownby)Â
Three dozen baseball teams played at fields in Knoxville and Oak Ridge this weekend in the 2015 NABF World Series.
The NABF is the National Amateur Baseball Federation.
The tournament play included Junior Division (16U, or 16 and younger) and High School Division (17U, or 17 and younger).
The baseball tournament was from Thursday, July 16, to Sunday, July 19, and it included teams from the United States and Canada.
Mayor Warren Gooch tossed the first pitch to open the series in Oak Ridge.
Organizers said most of the funds generated in Oak Ridge will stay with the Oak Ridge program. The Oak Ridge High School Summer Team qualified to be in the tournament.
Other fields used in the tournament included fields at West, Karns, Gibbs, and Schumpert Park, said Marcus Caldwell, assistant head coach for Oak Ridge High School baseball.
He said there were between 32 and 36 teams that competed in the tournament. Fourteen of the games were played in Oak Ridge. There had been 20 scheduled for Oak Ridge, but six games moved to Knoxville on Saturday because of the rain.
In the last game in Oak Ridge on Sunday, the New York Devil Cats from upstate New York beat the Seymour Eagles 5-1 in seven innings in the 16U championship game.
Caldwell said the ORHS Summer Team went 1-2 but improved. He said Oak Ridge beat a talented team from Troy, Ohio, 6-2, but had a hard 8-6 loss to Greenbelt Legion from Maryland.
Caldwell said money raised during the tournament in Oak Ridge will help the ORHS baseball boosters program. There are dugout and bullpen projects, Caldwell said.
He said the NABF World Series was in Oak Ridge about five years ago, and he and others worked hard to get it back to Oak Ridge again.
Caldwell said Oak Ridge has five fields at its baseball complex, and there are seven hotels and 10 restaurants within a mile. No one else in Tennessee can compete with that, he said.
Caldwell thanked the Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department for their hard work and preparation and Gooch for throwing the ceremonial first pitch.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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