The American Legion Baseball Illinois State Tournament takes place in Galesburg, starting today. The host team, Galesburg Post 285, will be joined by Division 3 champs, Rock Island Post 200 and four other Illinois division champs, Danville Post 210, Wheaton Post 76, Aviston Post 1239 and Barrington Post 158 for a 6-team, double elimination tournament.
The Illinois State Tournament starts Wednesday and runs through Saturday, with the winner heading to the Great Lakes Regional Tournament in Midland, Michigan August 2nd-6th. The state tournament will be played at Knox College this week. The tourney was originally scheduled to be played at Jim Sundberg Field on the Galesburg High School campus but was moved to Knox College after Galesburg District 205 made changes to the Facilities Use Agreement last July that nearly doubled the cost to rent Sundberg Field. Galesburg head coach Jeremy Kleine says it would’ve cost approximately $3600 to use the field for the 12 games in the state tournament this week. Galesburg Post 285 split playing their regular season home games this summer between Knox College and Carl Sandburg College.
Galesburg’s first game on Wednesday will begin at 5:00 against Barrington. The state championship game is set for 11 am on Saturday morning. If there’s an if-game, it will be played immediately following.
