Cal Ripken / Bay State
This page is to provide you with details regarding tryouts for the Bay State Baseball Tournament of Champions and Cal Ripken Baseball tournament teams. For those not familiar with these programs, below is a summary of each. It is important to note that participation on the tournament teams will be based on tryouts. Players must meet the age requirements per the April 30th age cut-off date as adopted by WYBSL in 2009.
Baystate: The Bay State Baseball Tournament of Champions program is for the young player who wants to develop and hone his/her skills through a continuing program of serious baseball while competing with a variety of all stars from cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts throughout the summer. The competition is keen and skills are quickly developed through a comprehensive program running from the first week of July through the middle of August each year. WYBSL will select three Baystate teams; U10, U11 and U12. These Baystate teams will also compete as a team in the Cal Ripken tournament. The cost per player for Baystate in 2009 will be $150.
Placement is not guaranteed and selection is on a tryout or evaluation basis. We recognize that a potential obstacle to making a commitment to this competitive baseball format is the conflict with family vacations during the tournament season. Flexibility has been built into the program to allow players to schedule vacations during the season while alternate players take their place on the active roster. For more information visit their website http://www.baystatebaseball.com
Cal Ripken: WYBSL is a member of The Eastern Massachusetts Cal Ripken Baseball Division of Babe Ruth Baseball, and began participating in their annual all-star tournament in 2008. The tournament program brings together teams that compete in district tournaments that could lead to opportunities to compete in state, regional and World Series tournaments in August. In 2008, WYBSL had two teams win their district championships then compete in the state tournament!
The plan is to select one Cal Ripken tournament team per age group; U9, U10, U11, and U12. To be eligible for the Cal Ripken team, a player must participate in a minimum of 67% of spring recreation league games. There is no incremental registration fee for the Cal Ripken tournament team, as this is part of the spring baseball program and is already included in that fee.
These teams will begin practicing prior to the district tournament and may compete in invitational tournaments with other towns during the summer. There will be practices after team selection, but the intent is to work around the recreation program; if there are practice conflicts with spring games, the spring recreation team game takes precedent. Along with the Baystate team, we will have two Cal Ripken teams for the U10 through U12 groups and one for the U9 level.
2009 Cal Ripken District Tournament locations:
- U9 - Westford (volunteers needed!)
- U10 - Shedd Park, Lowell
- U11 - Westford (volunteers needed!)
- U12 - Dracut
If a team wins their district tournament, they advance to the states.
2009 State Tournament Dates:
- U9: July 25-31 in Marshfield
- U10: July 11-18 in Tyngsboro
- U11: July 25-31 in Norton
- U12: July 11-18 in Raynham (the winner gets bye into the World Series to be played in Winchester, MA Aug 13-20)
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We are fortunate to have many good young baseball players in Westford who are eager to improve their skills and play against top notch competition. WYBSL is excited to offer these travel baseball opportunities to the families in our community and continue to be committed to giving our players every opportunity to improve their skills while enjoying the game of baseball.
For questions please contact your coach or division director.
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