Staff Report

Drawing 15 teams from six states, the American Legion’s Polk Brooks Invitational baseball tournament will take four days utilizing five baseball fields in the area this weekend.

Pool play will be Thursday and Friday with the top two teams in each of four, four-team pools advancing to an eight-team tournament Saturday. The championship game along with consolation tournament finals will be held Sunday.

The tournament grew from 12 teams to 20 last season, but is back down to what tournament organizers intended with a 16-team field this year.

Brooks Stadium will have a full lineup each day, but games will also be played at Hendron/Lone Oak Elementary, Community Christian High School, St. Mary High School and Graves County High School. The championship semifinals and finals will be at Brooks Stadium on Sunday with consolation bracket finals at Community Christian.

Last year’s winner Dunklin County, Mo., is back to defend its title along with last year’s runner-up Columbia, Tenn.

Paducah Post 31 heads the Stacey Pool with Blissfield, Mich., Paragould, Ark., and St. Genevieve, Mo. Columbia tops the Hideg Pool with Imperial, Mo., Evansville, Ind., and Mayfield.

Dunklin County tops the Swisher Pool that includes a team from Lone Oak, Lexington and Dyersburg, Tenn. The Adams Pool has Shelbyville, Terre Haute, Ind., Ballwin, Mo., and Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Because of the number of games to be played, there will be a 2-hour time limit on games with international tiebreaker rules if the game is deadlocked after the time limit runs out. The top two teams in each pool advance to the championship tournament bracket.