Independence Day is accompanied by many events throughout the Metro East region and the nation.

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One of those happenings is baseball, and local American Legion posts will be marking the holiday with the quintessential American sport – baseball.

The fourth Southwestern Illinois Firecracker Tournament will involve teams from throughout the area and even teams as far away as Texarkana, Ark., Mount Vernon, Evansville, Ind., Murphysboro, Bryant, Ark., and Jefferson City, Mo., during the three-day tournament. Play started at 10 a.m. Friday at three venues hosting pool play – Gordon Moore Park/Lloyd Hopkins Field in Alton, the Bethalto Sports Complex and Blazier Field in O'Fallon, with Longacre Park in Fairview Heights also hosting pool play on Saturday and the semifinals and final on Sunday.

“When it comes to a tournament like this, you put your best players on the field and have then go hard,” said Metro East Bears manager Ken Schaake (the Bears' sponsors, the Edwardsville and Alton American Legion posts, are one of the tournament's hosts; the other hosts are Belleville's Hilgards and the Swansea-Fairview Heights Giants). There's no gimme games; you have to got at it hard.

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“If you go at it hard and play hard, good things will generally happen. We have a good team and we've got as good a chance to win as anyone.”

The Bears have played in a pair of tournaments this season, one in Greenville. Ill., and one in Festus, Mo., last weekend. “It'll give all of our kids a chance to play over the weekend,” Schaake said. “We've shown we can play well, so we'll go out there and play as hard as we can.”

The tournament is divided into three pools of five teams each; Pool A, at Lloyd Hopkins Field, has the Bears, Columbia, Mo., Mt. Vernon, Jersey and Fulton, Mo. Pool B, at the Bethalto Sports Complex Friday and Longacre Park in Fairview Heights Saturday, will have Belleville, Murphysboro, Ill, Texarkana, Ark., St. Charles and Evansville, Ind., while Pool C, playing at Blazier Field in O'Fallon (which has artificial turf), has Fairview Heights, Bryant, Ark., Barrington, Ill., Jefferson City, Mo., and Festus, Mo.

Each team will play each other in round-robin competition over Friday and Saturday, with each of the pool winners and the best second-place team advancing to the semifinals Sunday at Longacre Park. The Bears' pool games were scheduled for 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday; the Metro East Bears took on Jerseyville and Mt. Vernon in Friday's games and Columbia and Fulton in Saturday's games. The semifinals are set for 11 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Sunday, with the final set for 3:30 p.m. A pool champion and the second-place team from the same pool cannot meet each other in the semifinals.

You can keep track of the games by logging on to www.sf-giantsbaseball.com; a full schedule and results will be posted and updated during the event.

 

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