NABF baseball tournament to swing through Lynchburg

Ted Allen / Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: December 10, 2007

Lynchburg will host the National Amateur Baseball Federation High School World Series for the first time in the NABF's 93-year history next summer.

A total of 800 players, ages 17 and under, will represent 40 teams from around the country and Canada that will travel to compete in the tournament, scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday, July 23-27.

"It will be the largest gathering of baseball talent in the state of Virginia at any one time or place," G.R. Wiley, president of the Virginia NABF, said at Monday's announcement in the Lynchburg Area Hall of Fame at City Stadium. "It will be a good chance to see what the talent is like around the country and for those teams coming in to see what we have to offer."

Founded in 1914, NABF is the oldest continuously operating amateur baseball organization in the United States, according to executive director Charles Blackburn.

"We use wooden bats and play the game as it should be played," he said.

Virginia's NABF affiliation started in 2005 with four teams from the Lynchburg area, but it has quickly expanded. Last summer, every high school in the Seminole District fielded at least one team and there were 32 teams in the Central Virginia region, an additional 20 teams in Northern Virginia and 10 in the Tidewater area. Five teams from Virginia will qualify for the 40-team field, including one host team.

Wiley's efforts and Virginia's newness to the organization helped bring the tournament here.

At least six area locations will be used - City Stadium, home of the Lynchburg Hillcats, Liberty University, Lynchburg College, Heritage and Rustburg high schools and Forest Middle School. All but City Stadium, which will be reserved for the playoffs and championship game, will host five games per day until the field is pared down to 18 teams by Saturday.

It will be the second summer in a row the area has hosted a baseball World Series, after Madison Heights put on the Dixie Youth Majors (11-12) and Minors (9-10) World Series in August, with opening ceremonies at City Stadium.

"We're very enthused about this," Lynchburg Mayor Joan Foster said. "Let's play ball."

Foster said the $6 million renovation of City Stadium's baseball complex was a big initial investment, but it has helped attract tournaments of this magnitude.

"It's paying dividends now," Foster said. "It's a win-win (situation for the city)."

"If we do a good job hosting it, we can keep it," Wiley added.

Virginia NABF administrator Mary Love, one of four winners of the 2007 NABF woman of the year award, expects the tournament to generate between $1 and 1.2 million for area hotels, restaurants and other businesses.

Wiley has reserved 3,000 tickets for players, coaches and families to see the Hillcats host the Wilmington Blue Rocks on the tournament's opening day.

A tournament bracket will be updated in real time on the www.vanabf.com Web site.

 Jefferson Forest first-year head coach Ryan Gilleland, who played with current Detroit Tiger Brandon Inge on a Wiley-coached team that went to the 1994 American Legion World Series, said hosting the tournament should help build up the NABF programs in the area.

"It's definitely big," said Gilleland, who played from 1995-98 at UVa. "It should be good for the fans of the Lynchburg area and great for the teams that are playing in it. It's also a good opportunity for the colleges in the area to do some recruiting, from Division III (LC) all the way up to Division I (LU)."

He credited Wiley for promoting the sport of baseball and area players. "He's been involved in this for a long time, trying to give kids in the area the best shot possible (to succeed at the next level)," Gilleland said.