Keystone Intermediate Baseball Hosts State Tourney Starting Tuesday

MILL HALL – The second floor banquet room of Haywoods on the Green was filled to capacity Monday evening as the Keystone Little League welcomed young athletes and their families to the 2019 Pennsylvania Intermediate 50/70 Division State Championship Tournament.

Keystone is the host team and Blaine W. Kunes Memorial Park in Beech Creek will be the site for the 5-team affair beginning on Tuesday. Other teams participating are Stroudsburg, West Side of West Chester, Upper Providence and Hollidaysburg. Keystone will open play Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Stroudsburg; West Side will meet Upper Providence in the tourney opener at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Hollidaysburg will take on the winner of the West Side/Upper Providence game on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The tournament will continue through Saturday, July 13 at 11 a.m. If a “what if” game is needed, it would be played Sunday, July 14 at 11 a.m.

The Keystone team is coached by Scott Fravel. The squad is composed of many players from the 2018 Keystone Major state championship team. The team won both district and sectional titles as no one else in Section Three fielded an intermediate all-star team this season. Older players from last year’s Major title-winning squad are competing this season as part of the Keystone Junior team still alive in the District 12 tournament.

The Intermediate division is, as its name indicates, played on a field intermediate in size between the standard Little League field and a full size field. Base paths are 70 feet apart, as opposed to 60 feet in Little League Major play and 90 feet in the larger divisions.