The Minor State Tournament for 16 teams for 9-year-old boys will take place at the DeRidder youth baseball fields Friday, July 17-Sunday, July 19.

It will be regular pitching.

On Friday, July 17, there will be eight games played.

On Saturday, July 18, 16 games will be played.

There will be round robin pool play with four teams and four brackets to start the tournament.

There will be about five or six elimination games on Saturday and Sunday.

After pool play, it will be single elimination “to keep the boys from pitching too much we’ll have single elimination,” according to DeRidder tournament director Ed Drew.

The games will each be six innings.

Drew encouraged people to come and watch.

“What I would encourage them is to watch the local boys be able to play against teams from all over the state,” Drew said.

“It is a big thing.”

Drew said he was not sure the last time the tournament was held in DeRidder.

“It takes a lot of input from the community for us to be able to have a program like this,” Drew said, adding it also takes support to have the facilities.

Drew said the Dixie Youth appreciates city support. He thanked Mayor Ron Roberts and Al Schellenberger and Tommy Landry, who oversee city maintenance.

“Dixie Youth appreciates their support in providing the facilities we have to be able to host an event like this,” Drew said.

For more information about the tournament, www.deridderdixieyouth.com has state and district links.

An article with links for that would include all of the details will be on the Web site.