Batters up
Ray Carter Cup starts in Summerside on Thursday morning
Summerside will host Canada’s top 15-under baseball players this week.
Summerside will host Canada’s top 15-under baseball players this week.
The 10-team tournament, featuring a representative from each province, begins Thursday morning, and continues until Sunday evening.
“It’s an elite brand of ball,” said tournament game operations chair Tanner Doiron. “You are going to see the best kids in Canada at this age group.”
The tournament was renamed the Ray Carter Cup at last year’s national championship in Summerside. Carter is a former longtime president of
Baseball Canada.
P.E.I. team
One major change from last year’s tournament is there is no host team this year, and just one P.E.I. representative.
There will also be a P.E.I. flavour with the 15-member umpiring crew as Mike Richards of Summerside and Jonathan Schut of Cornwall will call the action. Kent Walker of Charlottetown will serve as a supervisor of umpires.
Overall, around 260 athletes, coaches and umpires are expected to participate, and the tournament is expected to attract some high-level scouting.
Teams begin arriving on Tuesday, and all teams and officials will be here for a welcome barbecue at Credit Union Place on Wednesday.
An event of this magnitude could not be possible without strong volunteer support. There are close to 200 volunteers registered. The biggest department is game-day operations, which has 163 slots to fill during the four days.
Facilities
All 28 games are scheduled for Queen Elizabeth Park’s Very Important Volunteer (VIV) Field and Legends Field. The opening ceremonies, which are scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m., Sunday’s medal games at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m., and the closing ceremonies will take place on VIV Field. All of the permanent seating areas at both diamonds have been repainted for the tournament.
“The concourse area will come to life during the event, and there will be onsite vendors,” said tournament chairman Ryan Steele.
Tickets
Advance tournament passes can be purchased at Credit Union Place’s box office for $60, and game-day tickets will be available at QEP’s box office.
“Tickets are moving well,” noted Robbie Rankin, event and corporate senior manager for the City of Summerside.
The tournament is also an EcoFriendly event, and Rankin noted there will be extra recycling bins around the facility. Tri-Tech is the tournament’s title sponsor.