One of the area's traditional summer baseball tournaments for high school-aged players always takes place around the July 4th weekend, and this year marks the 40th annual version of the Holiday Tournament sponsored by the Springfield Area Baseball Association.
28 teams from all over the region are competing at seven sites in the Springfield area. Wednesday and Thursday features pool play with the top two teams from each pool and two wildcard teams advancing to Friday's elimination round. The semifinals are Saturday and the finals on Sunday with games over those two days played at Drury University's field at Meador Park.
In the early rounds, the Branson pool includes the Branson Merchants, the Reeds Spring Wolves, Glendale and the Midwest Outlaws. The Ozark pool is made up of the Ozark Merchants, Sparta, the West Plains Merchants, and Jerry's Bears VFW Post 1000. The Catholic pool consists of Springfield Catholic, Strafford, Mid-Mo Hurricanes, and the Andrew County Kings. The Willard pool has the SWMO Thunder, the Fair Grove Eagles, Locker Room, and Jefferson City Post 5. Parkview's pool includes the Parkview Vikings, Rogersville, Conway, and Independence Hi Boy, the team that Albert Pujols once played for. Pool play at Kickapoo features the Kickapoo Chiefs, Willard, the Southwest Storm, and St. Joe Post 11. And in Republic its the Republic Tigers, Highway 39ers, Sports World, and Post 21.
