The Saladino Baseball Tournament of Hillsborough returns for its 44th installment, starting this Saturday and featuring three exciting tournament divisions. All three divisions, Gold, Silver and Bronze, feature pool-play rounds from Saturday, March 15, through Tuesday, March 18, with each of the 32 teams guaranteed at least four tournament games.
All of the South Shore 5 baseball squads are playing in the tournament, which has a long list of distinguished ballplayers who have gone on to the Major Leagues.
Lennard High School in Ruskin is one of the playing sites for some of the Saladino Tourney. Another playing site in the South Shore 5 is at Riverview High. East Bay High plays at the Jefferson High School site in Tampa. Sumner High plays at the Ruskin site along with Lennard High. Both Spoto High and Riverview High play at the Riverview High Baseball Field.
Gold Division
At Jefferson High: East Bay plays Saturday versus Jefferson High at 4 p.m., Monday versus Gaither High at 4 p.m. and Tuesday versus Bloomingdale at 4 p.m.
At Lennard High: Lennard plays Saturday versus Alonso at 4 p.m., Monday versus Sumner at 7 p.m. and Tuesday versus Strawberry Crest at 7 p.m. Sumner plays Saturday versus Strawberry Crest at 1 p.m., Monday versus Lennard at 7 p.m., Tuesday versus Alonso at 4 p.m.
Gold Division semifinals are Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Consolation fourth game sites for remaining teams are still to be determined. The Saladino Championship is Thursday, March 20, at 7 p.m. at University of Tampa Baseball Field.
Bronze Division
At Riverview High: Spoto plays Riverview, Saturday at 4 p.m.; Spoto plays Freedom, Monday at 4 p.m.; Riverview plays Blake, Monday at 7 p.m.; Spoto plays Blake, Tuesday at 4 p.m.; Riverview plays Freedom, Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Saladino Bronze Championship is Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. at Riverview. The consolation fourth game for remaining teams is Wednesday, March 19, with site/times to be determined.
Gold Division consolation teams will play their fourth game, while the four pool winners will face off in semifinal action on Wednesday, March 19, with the Saladino Championship Final taking place at the University of Tampa on Thursday, March 20.
Silver and Bronze Division Tournaments are split into two pools, with each pool winner facing off in that tournament championship on Wednesday, March 19.
All tournaments will be split into pools (Gold – 4 divisions; Silver & Bronze – 2 divisions) with each division producing a pool winner based on tie-breaker rules in the following order: head-to-head, runs allowed, runs scored, coin flip. The highest seed based on the coaches committee rankings will be the home team throughout pool play and semifinal rounds. Championship games will have a coin flip to determine home team.