District 18 Little League Tournaments Resume Today

Crews of volunteers hit the fields early Saturday morning to get fields drenched by Friday’s heavy rain playable for the Little League District 18 tournaments.

In Jackson, even turf fields at the Justice Complex weren’t enough to allow the Little League division – the 12-year-olds – to play. Under umbrellas, league and team officials waited until after 7 p.m. Friday before finally giving in to Mother Nature and postponing the double elimination round for a day.

That forced the three remaining Toms River teams – Toms River East National, Toms River National and Toms River American – to wait until Saturday to begin the next part of the journey to what they hope is an August trip to Williamsport. Those games begin at 11 a.m. in Jackson.

Elsewhere, the Toms River East Little League was hard at work trying to ready its fields for an 11 a.m. start for the 11-year-olds. But those fields got so wet that they needed another two hours to dry, the league noted, pushing back game starts for that group.

The 8-year-old division is scheduled to get under way Saturday at the Toms River Little League fields with four games, while the 9-year-olds began play in Barnegat, with the Toms River East American team facing Howell South at 8:30 a.m.