Travel Tournaments

Sports at the Beach (DE) does week-long events near Rehoboth Beach, DE.

From 13U to 16U we did a few SATB. I wasn't pleased with the fields. Some of the outfield fences were ridiculously short. The umpiring was among the worse I've seen at tournaments. The level of competition was good. From a location standpoint it was a good destination.

We did the Triple Crown Summer Nationals in Myrtle Beach at 13 and liked it. It was a pretty well-run tournament with decent umps / fields (nice HS fields, Coastal Carolina's field, MB Pelicans Stadium.)

The only drawback was that it is a fairly large tournament so they have to use quite a number of fields....some of those fields are pretty far from the Myrtle Beach area.

That tournament tends to fill up quickly...and there were some qualification restrictions (having to play in a Triple Crown state tourney or something)...so you might want to read up on that. Triple Crown usually runs some tournaments in the VA Beach/Richmond area.

Here is a link to their site:
http://www.triplecrownsports.com/myrtle.asp?sportid=1

We also did the Triple Crown tourny at Myrtle Beach as 15U. As far as field locations go, as the poster above mentioned, I got a Myrtle Beach map from AAA and circled all the field locations before we left. Having the GPS is great, but the map shows you the relative location. (After being teased for begin old-fashioned with the map, other parents wound up going to the AAA at MB and doing the same thing.)

One thing about playing baseball at the beach for a week....if it rains, you can't do baseball or hit the beach. At least at MB you will not lack for shopping or restaurants.

One of my favorite venues for a tournament was the Ripkin tourny in Aberdeen, MD. If you can get reservations at the Courtyard Marriott, you literally walk out the back door onto the complex. The hotel is built to look like Camden Yards. Not sure if they have week-long tournaments since their MB location does, but I know they have long-weekend tournaments over holidays. Although not at the beach, they fill up very fast.

Mom 2 - Maybe not the beach you were thinking of but..

MCYSA 13U Summer International Championships in Crystal Lake, IL July 31 to August 4. 45 teams last year - 5 international teams: Brazil, Puerto Rico (2), Sri Lanka, Dominican.

There are beaches: Crystal Lake as two beaches that your team gets free admission to and we are 40 miles from Chicago and those excellent beaches plus everything else that Chicago has to offer.

The tournament is a 5 game guar. - 4 in pool play followed by Gold and Silver single-elim tournaments. NO TIME LIMITS. All games are played to completion. Cost is $1,095.00 No other required fees. No individual admissions fees.

www.MCYSASports.org This will be a Nations Baseball sanctioned event.

quote:

Originally posted by keewart:
One of my favorite venues for a tournament was the Ripkin tourny in Aberdeen, MD. If you can get reservations at the Courtyard Marriott, you literally walk out the back door onto the complex. The hotel is built to look like Camden Yards. Not sure if they have week-long tournaments since their MB location does, but I know they have long-weekend tournaments over holidays. Although not at the beach, they fill up very fast.

It's been quite some time, but early in my son's travel ball career (he's now a freshman at a Div II JUCO playing ball) his travel team played at a weekend tournament at the Ripken facility in Aberdeen. The tournament was well run, but the hotel behind the Cal Sr field (small Camden Yards) was not built yet so we had to stay down the road. As I recall it was a rather pricey tournament - $600/team with a 3 game guarantee.

They also played at Sports at the Beach in Delaware as a 12U team - they have week long tournaments (8 games minimum). It was okay, but paled in comparison to Cooperstown Dreams Park.

quote:

Originally posted by mom2triplettravel:
My son's 13U travel team (currently ranked AA, will probably move up to AAA in the spring) is looking at destination tournaments for next summer. Of course we're looking at Ripken Experience, but also OBX Invitational. We prefer to do a week-long beach-trip, somewhere in NC/SC, or MD. Does anyone have any experience with these tournaments? Or have a recommendation for other ones?

My son's team, also 13u AAA, will be hitting all USSSA tournaments next year. Most will be in Mich. but we're planning to head to Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Myrtle Beach Super NIT's. He's also moving up from AA and the teams are new to us but from what I understand the best teams in the country will play USSSA NIT and Super NIT's in attempt to qualify for World Series bids.

Going to be a fun year for high caliber ball.