Richmond City Baseball is rolling out the red carpet as hosts of this year’s John Main Tournament that will include an entry from Taiwan.
The annual B.C. Minor Baseball event gets underway on Thursday with 16 Pee Wee age teams doing battle over four days.
For the first time, the tournament will have an international flavour with a team from the Fuyuan Baseball Academy. The team arrived yesterday and is being billeted with the Vancouver Community Baseball Association.
Fuyuan will open play on Thursday (6 p.m.) against the Vancouver Community Capilanos and is part of a round-robin group that also includes Cloverdale and the host Richmond City Baseball Blue.
To accommodate the large crowds expected to take in the Taiwan games, they will play exclusively at Brighouse Park. The majority of the tournament takes place at the Palmer/Garden City Complex with three diamonds in use.
Fuyuan’s remaining round-robin schedule includes two games on Saturday — 9 a.m. against Cloverdale and 3 p.m. against Richmond Blue.
The four pool group winners will meet in the semi-finals on Sunday morning (10 a.m.) and the championship game is slated for 2 p.m. at Brighouse.
RCBA’s Pee Wee AA gold team is also participating in the tournament. Other entries include: White Rock, Burnaby, Nanaimo, Vancouver Community Mounties, Ladner, Chilliwack, Victoria, North Delta, North Shore, Abbotsford and Penticton.
