BASEBALL

Back to Cherryville

Fraley Field will see American Legion state tournament in July

Richard Walker
rwalker@gastongazette.com
Cherryville's Fraley Field will host 2019 N.C. American Legion state tournament from July 26-30. [File photo]

CHERRYVILLE — The road to an American Legion baseball state title in North Carolina will run through Cherryville this summer.

On Friday, North Carolina American Legion officials awarded Cherryville Post 100 the 2019 state championship tournament.

The 20th annual event will be held July 26-30 at Cherryville's Fraley Field with teams and top Legion officials being hosted at Gastonia hotels.

"It's been a while since it's been here and we're happy it'll be coming back," said longtime Cherryville Legion coach Bobby Reynolds, the state's all-time winningest Legion baseball coach. "Baseball is big here in Cherryville and in Gaston County and we're going to do all we can to make this a top-flight event."

It'll be the second time in event history that Cherryville has hosted the state tournament and fourth time it's been held in the area.

In 2005, Pitt County won an event in which three eventual major leaguers were among the players in the eight-team tournament. Pitt County's Alex White, Caldwell County's Madison Bumgarner and Morehead City Lonnie Chisenhall were the eventual major leaguers to play in the 2005 state tournament.

Other local state tournaments have been hosted by Shelby's Keeter Stadium at Veterans Field in 2004 and Gastonia's Sims Legion Park at Buddy Lewis Field in 2008.

Since North Carolina began using a state tournament to determine its champion in 2000, the event host rotated between the four Legion areas in the state.

The 2019 tournament was slated to be hosted by Area II, which is located in the Southeastern part of the state.

But no Area II team applied to host the event, opening it up for bids from teams in the other areas of the state.

Cherryville's bid to host was accepted last Friday and Post 100 will receive an automatic berth in the eight-team tournament that is likely to use a pool play format to determine the champion.

Since Area II didn't apply to host in the year in which it was designated to host, only its champion will qualify along with the champion and runner-ups from N.C. Area I, II and IV. Should Cherryville finish as Area IV champion or runner-up, another Area IV team will qualify to complete the eight-team field.

The 2019 North Carolina state champion will advance to the Southeast Regionals at Asheboro's McCrary Park from Aug. 7-11 and the winner of the regional advances to the American Legion World Series at Shelby's Keeter Stadium at Veterans Field from Aug. 15-20.

Richard Walker: 704-869-1843; twitter.com/jrwalk22