Swing batter batter, swing NATION'S LARGEST TOURNEY TAKING PLACE IN FLOWER MOUND Those traveling through Flower Mound and Lewisville this month will likely notice an inordinate amount of youngsters taking over the local Cici’s or Chucky Cheese Pizza Parlors. That’s because the fifth annual AAYBA World Series — the largest single-city baseball tournament in the nation — is taking place in Flower Mound. It begins June 30 and runs through July 15. More than 220 teams from Texas, as well as California, Nebraska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri and others, have descended upon Flower Mound for the 7-and-Under, 9U, 11U and 13U brackets. On Friday, the 8U, 10U, 12U and 14U tournaments began, running the total to more than 400 teams competing over the two-week period, which takes place throughout Flower Mound as well as portions of Lewisville and Highland Village and is hosted by the Flower Mound Youth Sports Association. The tournament is open to all teams. “If you think you’re good enough to play, you can come on out,” said Scott White, AAYBA tournament director. “A lot of times those qualifiers can be expensive and then you still have to travel to the big tournaments. Here, you can qualify and know you are going to be able to play for a week. It’s great for baseball and a lot of work is put in to ensure teams are happy. It’s a great package of baseball and is a family-run atmosphere. Very seldom teams come with just the kids. It’s typically families using the tournament as a vacation. We want to provide not only a great tournament but provide an opportunity for the whole family.”
FLOWER MOUND 20 EXPERIENCE JUNE 2012
From there, teams began pool play with three games in two days before advancing onto bracket play, where they typically play one game per day. In addition to Bakersfield, the tournament is played at Gerault Park, Lake Park, Railroad Park, LHS, Highland Village and more.
still have a chance to walk away as a winner of your bracket.”
The tournament, in its fifth season in Flower Mound, has a contract to continue through at least 2013.
“We had a great tournament last year in St. Louis, but we wanted to come down to Texas where we could play some teams we don’t usually see,” said John Swearingen, Rattlers coach. “It’s an amazing production. We all caravanned down for the 16-hour drive.”
“Flower Mound is a great area and venue for the tournament,” White said. “We’ve looked over the years for various places and we thought we could have a good partnership with Flower Mound and we jumped on it. The FMYSA does a great job of helping. They provide a bunch of volunteers and it has really gone hand in hand. I can’t believe it won’t be here in the future after 2013. The quality of the fields here, the quality of the people helping out, the umpiring crews, everything is top notch.” While the FMYSA has helped with the tournament, White and company still have their work cut out to make things run smoothly. The challenges begin with the scheduling. “That’s by far the hardest thing,” White said. “But we have a scheduler that nobody in the nation has. Every team is guaranteed at least seven games. After pool play, we have crossover games that lead teams into different brackets. It’s a drop-down format and after the pool play and crossover games, the teams are seeded. The best part is that teams have chances to play teams of different caliber and everyone has a chance to win a tournament, regardless of how you finished in your pool play. You can lose all three of your pool games, lose your crossover game and
Some teams, such as the 11U Romeoville Rattlers (Ill.), have come to Texas to play despite an AAYBA World Series down the road in Missouri (in which the team competed last year).
The Rattlers are a full travel team, competing in around eight to 10 tournaments per summer for an estimated 60 games. The team has a corps of seven or eights players who have been playing since they were eight. Next season, the team will also compete in a 12U tourney in Cooperstown and a 13U tourney in South Carolina the following summer. “This is the best tournament,” Swearingen said. “You can’t beat it. They have the nicest fields, great crews, great people and it’s in a great area.” Swearingen said the Rattlers have spent their downtime in the pool and enjoying some Texas barbecue. While the Rattlers have been playing as a squad for years, others — such as the 7U Flower Mound Red All-Stars — have only recently been formed. “This team is put together based on rec players in Flower Mound,” said coach Don Manning, Red All-Stars coach. “This is our fourth or fifth