Tournament Schedule
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About the Beach Diamond Invitational
Each and every year, as Spring turns the corner, the grass turns green and dandelions make their way through the crust of the earth, we receive our reward for surviving another winter with the start of High School Baseball season. And every season, like clockwork, just as the white chalk starts to stain the grass along the baseline and the team starts hitting their stride, players and their families are tempted with the lure of Spring Break. An opportunity to go someplace warmer and get an early taste of summer temptations. As baseball coaches, we know the negative impact 7 days away, right in the heart of the season, can have on a developing team. As young men, the desires of sunshine and sandy feet are tough to resist, especially when most of those around us are posting pictures of such. As baseball family members we support the sacrifices that need to made in order to create opportunities of success for these young men.
With all three of these perspectives in mind, in the Spring of 1996, Coach Mike Alderson decided it was time to bring a spring tournament to Brunswick County. Coach Alderson had traveled throughout the Carolinas for several years taking his teams as far as Spartanburg in search of finding a few games to keep the teams sharp during Spring Break. He was also a father of a baseball player, and having spent his life around these teenage young men, he remembered well what those years were like. At the end of the day, the shared belief was “who wouldn’t want to come to the beach and play baseball during Spring Break?” The facilities at West Brunswick provided the perfect backdrop for the birthplace of this vision. West Brunswick is located in Shallotte, NC which is the central hub for some of the area’s best beaches. Due to the hard work of the local coaching staff, the baseball facilities at Mike Alderson Field appeal to any baseball enthusiast, and the beaches were already a popular family spring break destination. The combination of these building blocks, led to the first ever Beach Diamond Invitational Tournament.
For the past 28 years, Mike Alderson Field has played host to The Beach Diamond Invitational Tournament. Through the years this tournament has brought some of the top rated high school baseball players from around the Country to play along the coast of Brunswick County. Teams from New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and all throughout the Carolinas have traveled to take part in the event. The tournament format guarantees all teams involved a minimum of 3 games over a period of 3 days, and is held annually during the week following the Easter Holiday. The Championship Game features the 2 teams who survive Rounds 1 and 2 undefeated for a chance to see who can be crowned Kings of the Beach.
