ANDERSON — Tradition clearly means a lot to a program with an 85-year history.
For the first time, the round-robin American Legion holiday baseball tournament normally held at Memorial Field will be played at Muncie’s McCulloch Park this weekend.
Renamed the John Miles Memorial Holiday Tournament, the games actually began Thursday. But Anderson Hockett, the team Miles coached for more than two decades, begins play today at 10 a.m. against Bristol.
Tradition dictates this is the time of year when Post 127 begins to get serious about the postseason, and first-year skipper Travis Keesling doesn’t intend to break from it.
“Absolutely,” Keesling said. “There are a lot of good teams in there, including Muncie. It’s a great tournament. We expect to play hard and hopefully win it.”
Hockett is expecting its entire roster to be available, with the exception of Elwood’s Jacob Hartman.
Keesling won’t be in attendance. He had a pre-planned trip he couldn’t change. His brother, Trevor, and Daren Hardesty will run the team in his stead.
Trevor Keesling and Hardesty are Pendleton Heights grads, and Hardesty currently is Travis Keesling’s pitching coach at Greenfield-Central.
Frankton’s Brandon France, who will travel to Evansville on June 8 to take part in the North-South All-Star Classic, said the team has a different feel heading into the tournament.
“We’re doing pretty good as a team,” France said. “Coming out with a victory from this would really set us up for the sectional and everything after that.”
Three Hockett players — France, Elwood’s Jacob Dunnichay and Highland’s Trevor Humes — recently participated in the Mr. Baseball Classic at North Central High School.
That speaks to the talent level of a team Travis Keesling said is still finding its identity. The holiday tournament will begin to set the stage for the postseason roster.
“We’re getting a feel for our postseason roster right now,” Keesling said. “We’re trying different lineups, getting to see a lot of players. This (tournament) will be a factor (in the postseason roster), but it won’t be the determining factor.”
Hockett will play five games in three days, starting with Bristol. There’s a 12:30 p.m. against Carmel today, followed by another doubleheader Saturday with games at 10 a.m. against Mishawaka and 1 p.m. against Jay-Randolph.
Hockett wraps up play Sunday at 6 p.m. against Muncie.
France, who played for Hockett as a sophomore before returning this season, admitted the rivalry with Muncie carries a little extra heat.
“Muncie seemed to beat us every time we played (in 2007) until the sectional,” he said.
With almost the entire roster on hand and good competition on the schedule, France is looking forward to the weekend.
He said he hopes the team will have good support from its fans.
“It’s going to be great,” he said. “We’re going out there to play our hardest and win the tournament. Hopefully, the fans will come out. And, hopefully, even more people will come to the bigger tournament, which is the sectional (July 17-19 in Muncie).”
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