The Lunenburg County Youth Baseball League (LCYBL) hosted the 2019 Dixie Youth Baseball Major League and Machine Pitch state tournaments at its complex in Victoria this summer, enjoying another positive experience that benefited the league, the participants and the community, even with a few unscheduled breaks due to inclement weather.

LCYBL President David Clark served as director of both state tourneys and was pleased with how they went.

“I thought everything went good,” he said. “We fought with the weather. We had two nights we got rained out fighting with the weather. The crowd was good, and looks like we should have done pretty good on the fundraising part, the reason we do it, to make money (to benefit the league), so all that worked out good.”

The Machine Pitch state tournament, which featured four teams, ran from July 5-9. The Majors state tourney included eight teams and ran from July 5-12.

Clark said hosting the tournaments “could not have been done without my fellow board members.”

The LCYBL board is made up of nine members.

Also helping make the tournaments a success were “about 25 good volunteers,” Clark said.

The LCYBL complex, which includes Lenhart Field and Neblett Field, has been a popular location for Dixie Youth Baseball tournaments in recent years.

The facility was the site of the 2018 Majors and Machine Pitch District 5 tourneys and the 2017 Majors and Machine Pitch state tourneys.

Clark explained how that came to be.

“You’ve got to go bid on it,” he said. “You just stand up and talk about your facility and what you’ve got to offer and all that stuff, and everybody votes on it, and we got voted to host it.”

While tourneys are expected to benefit the leagues hosting them, they also make a positive financial impact on the community a league is located in through things like food and lodging.

Clark said the value to the community of this year’s joint state event was “just the amount of people that it brings into Victoria. We don’t have a lot of coming attractions in Lunenburg County, but you figure you brought 12 teams of 12 kids into the town, so that’s how I feel about it — you’re just bringing people into the town.”