2025 8U Friendship Tournament

Beth – Wood Baseball League is pleased to announce that it will once again be hosting our 8’s Friendship Tournament in 2025.

We plan to begin playing games the week of June 16th – we anticipate completing all round – robin games by July 6th so we may begin our single elimination Tournament on or about Tuesday, July 8th or so.  Teams are made up of Players who are a baseball age 8 by April 30, 2025 (no 9’s will be allowed to participate but 7’s are allowed to participate if you are not able to field a Team with just 8’s – this has worked out great in previous years)…  If your League has not yet participated in it, you should seriously consider doing so this year as it certainly is a blast (not only for the kids but also the parents / coaches as well) !!

For those Towns who have not participated in this before, the format of this Tournament is fairly simple – depending on the number of Teams entered, we will split the Teams into an American League / National League Division, then each Team will play each other hopefully once in a round – robin format (total of 8 games) in their respective League Divisions (each Team will have an equal number of home and away games).  Based upon the Team’s record in round robin play, they will be seeded accordingly ; each Team will then play in a single elimination Tournament played at our Beth - Wood complex in Woodbridge (Tournament will start on or about Tuesday, July 8th and will run through on or before July 31st), where the winner and runner up will receive trophies …  In 2024, we had 19 Teams participate (one of our largest contingent ever) - Teams played a total of 8 games in the round robin phase, then went on to participate in the Tournament phase (where a solid, well coached Team Norwalk captured the crown by defeating a great Team from RHAM in an well played final game) !!

This Tournament has always turned out to be a great deal of fun the past several years we have run it and the main focus is to give our younger kids an excellent opportunity to play some fun but competitive baseball, so they are ready to step up into All Stars when they are 9’s ; we also use a Louisville Slugger manual pitching machine in lieu of parents / kids pitching --

The Entry fee will only be $ 350. / Team, which is certainly a bargain for a month chocked full of fun, excitement and great games of baseball !!

A few years back, we ran into a major scheduling issue with a multitude of 8’s Teams who committed to participate in both our Friendship Tournament as well as the Cal Ripken 8’s States & Regionals during the same time frame.  Also some Teams were unable to play all of their round – robin games due to the conflicts with the States & Regionals, which certainly was not fair to them.  Therefore, to avoid any potential conflicts like this in the future and most importantly to be fair to those Teams who commit solely to playing only in our Friendship Tournament, if your League is planning to enter an 8’s Travel Team and participate in the 2025 CT Cal Ripken 8’s State Tournament, you will NOT be allowed to participate in our Friendship Tournament.  If anything changes that possibly will allow us to co-exist, we will let you know.  Stay tuned for further updates

As a side note, we are neither looking for nor are we encouraging that each Town hold special try outs and only send their best 8’s as an All Star Team to play in this Tourney – above all, our main goal is to ensure this a fun / enjoyable experience for every Team that enters !!  So please include ANY AND ALL 8’s who can commit / abide by the Tournament Rules and wish to participate (and if that means forming a 2nd Team, why not give those kids a chance to continue playing this great game of baseball this summer, which should be everyone’s goal, including filling your Team Rosters with some strong 7’s) !!  Beth - Wood does it as do other Towns, so please be guided accordingly when forming your Teams --

So if you are interested, please share this with your respective League Coordinators (along with your 8 - year old Coaches) and get back to our attention on or before May 7th, so we can start getting this Tournament organized !!

We plan to hold an informational meeting with all Teams wishing to participate the week of June 2nd in Woodbridge (final date / time TBD) so we can go over the Tournament Rules and address any questions that might come up - stay tuned for any updates on this …  Certainly appreciate your interest and hope to hear from many of you soon – take care and stay safe !!

Dwight C. Rowland

President, Beth – Wood Baseball   

CT Cal Ripken District 2 Commissioner    

Cell :  203-215-0266

email : bethwoodpres72@gmail.com

 

Co – Chair :  Jordan Sullivan                                

                         203-804-0395

                        Jsulli1111@aol.com