Lodi Reds taking part in East Coast tournament
On Sunday, the Lodi Reds 12 and under baseball team will be playing in one of the biggest tournaments on the East Coast.
The Reds will play in the Cooperstown All-Star Village in Cooperstown, N.Y., the home of National Baseball Hall of Fame. According to Reds manager Jason Evans, approximately 50 teams are scheduled to play.
Evans flew out from Sacramento on Thursday, and arrived later in the day. He said his players and their families had either arrived prior to Thursday, or will by late Friday night.
After the Reds and the teams are welcomed with a parade and dinner on Saturday night, the teams will begin action on Sunday, playing two games a day through Tuesday. The Reds are scheduled to play six pool play games. The Reds’ schedule won’t be released until Saturday night, if not hours before their first game on Sunday, Evans said. That keeps teams from having to scout the other prior to the tournament.
How the Reds and the other teams perform in pool play will determine their seeding in the tournament, which becomes single-elimination after pool play that concludes next Saturday. Part of the seeding criteria that determine a team’s placing is runs scored and allowed. The higher seeded teams will play fewer games.
“We are guaranteed at least seven games,” Evans said.
That means pitching will be a premium for the
Reds and teams competing in the tournament. Each player, Evans states, has been taught at least two pitches to throw, and have tossed in tournament games in the spring. The Reds played in various tournaments this past spring in Sacramento, Elk Grove, Ripon, Tracy, Turlock and Santa Cruz.
“One of our philosophies is to teach everyone to pitch,” Evans said. “We also try to develop pitchers; some are front-line starters, some are spot relief guys.”
Players on the Reds’ roster are Matthew Alagna, Joshua Anderson, Hugo Balderrama, Dante Cecchini, Jaron Diaz, Dylan Evans, Caleb Hendricks, Ryan Hunter, Gage Jimenez, Jacob Lopez, Zachary Stephens and Brayden Stout.
“The team baseball IQ is a part of the game,” Evans said. “The players who want to challenge themselves mentally, the skill set that they have and the ability to improve upon their skill set.”
The players were selected last July, Evans noted. Then he and his assistant coaches in Eric Lopez, Frank Cecchini, Jim Stout and Brandon Jiminez work with the Reds’ players starting in the middle/toward the end of last summer, into the fall and parts of winter months in preparing last spring’s tournaments.
The Reds, who are a 501 nonprofit organization, work together as a family. The families and their sons grow during the year-round process that Evans established seven years ago.
“We spend lot of weekends together,” Evans said.
Evans founded the Reds’ club in 2010. Since then, he’s taken Lodi area players to the tournament every summer.
When the Reds aren’t playing on the field Sunday through Tuesday, they plan to go sight-seeing. One of their trips, Evans said, is visiting the MLB Hall of Fame facility. Some families plan to catch a New York Yankees’ home game, in hopes of catching Linden product Aaron Judge.
“Some families will use their time as an extended family vacation,” Evans said.
According to its Website, cooperstownallstarvillage.com, Cooperstown All-Star Village is a worldclass family baseball resort. The baseball summer camp offers tournaments on MLB’s style fields for players 12 and under. All games are scheduled to be televised live on the Website.
To watch games, updates or more information, visit the allstar’s Website.