The Great Bend Chiefs have been granted an automatic berth in the Class AAA State Tournament July 27-30, which has been switched to Great Bend after a scheduling conflict in Garden City.
It became official on the opening day of the Class AAA Zone Tournament Sunday. It had been in the works during the week but was announced Sunday — the Great Bend Chiefs would host the AAA State Tournament in a last minute change.
That came about as a scheduling conflict in Garden City between the Garden City Wind of the Pecos League and the American Legion couldn’t be resolved with the City. Garden City has a signed contract with The Wind, which would not give up the stadium on the days the Legion needed it for the AAA State event.
That left the Kansas American Legion baseball committee without a site to host the AAA State.
The opportunity arose for Great Bend to step in and take over as host of the event. With that comes an automatic spot in the event. That made the Chiefs’ outcome in the Zone irrelevant to making it to state.
“We were the first place the Legion recommended and we gladly accepted,” Coach Roger Ward said. “This is the chance-of-a-lifetime. How many times do you get to host a zone and AAA State in the same year?”
The AAA State tournament will take place starting July 27 at the Great Bend Sports Complex.
“It was late notice and they chose us for a number of reasons,” Ward said. “It is a combination of how we play the game the right way, we have a nice complex and the people here run a good tournament. It was a perfect storm that brought it here.”