Northville to Host NABF World Series

Some of the best young talent in baseball will be descending on Northville this week for the National Amateur Baseball Federation Junior Division World Series.

The Junior Division is for players age 16 and under and the NABF World Series showcases some of the top players in the country.

“Alex Avila played here in 2003,” said NABF Junior Division director David Jerome, who has a law firm in Northville. “Jake Peavy, he played here in 1996. He went on to be the best pitcher in the National League with the San Diego Padres.”

Avila is a catcher with the Detroit Tigers, while Peavy, who won the 2007 NL Cy Young Award and is a three-time All-Star selection, is currently with the Chicago White Sox.

Northville is hosting the tournament for the 29th straight year, according to Jerome, who served as NABF president from 2008-2010.

For the first time, Northville will have two teams in the tournament. By virtue of being the host city the last 29 years, Northville has always had one 16U team, but because of a last-minute drop out by another team, Northville’s 15U team earned the replacement bid.

“We’re very excited, extremely actually,” said Ken Cheslick, who coaches the Northville Broncos 15U team, which competes in the Midwest Alliance Travel Baseball League. “When we learned we got in, they were like little kids. They’re still only 15, but they were very excited to get the invitation.”

Cheslick and the Broncos decided to move up into the 16-and-under division in the MATBL to boost their competition and it obviously helped.

“This is a really nice reward for them,” Cheslick said. “We did well in the regular season, but this is kind of a nice end-of-the-season bonus.”

The Northville 16U Broncos are coached by Bob O'Neill and they play in the Kensington Valley Baseball and Softball Association.

The tournament kicks off tonight with the opening ceremony at 6 p.m. at Ford Field in Northville. Michigan State University baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. will address the boys. A skills competition will follow, starting at approximately 6:45 p.m. It is expected to finish up by about 8:30 p.m.

The skills contest will feature a home-run derby, a pitching contest in which participants have to throw a ball through a hole in a board from various distances. There will also be a throwing competition and a base-running competition.

The tournament begins Thursday morning and lasts through Sunday. There are 10 teams divided into two pools. Each team plays one game against the other four teams in its pool. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals at 3 and 6 p.m. on Saturday. The championship is Sunday at noon.

Pool games will be split between the fields at and . The semifinals and title game are at Hillside.

“This is a tremendous thing for the community,” said tournament director Scott Baldwin. “The kids get to play in a national championship every year. We’ve never won, but we always hold out hope that we may get it one of these years.”

Northville 16U Broncos Schedule

MATBL Northville 15U Broncos Schedule