Boys indoor baseball 6th Beaver Rice Tournament gets underway Friday

The sixth annual Beaver Rice Memorial Boys Baseball Wood Bat Winter Indoor Classic will be held this weekend inside the Southern Illinois Center on the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds.

The tournament, which is an annual fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois and in particular the Special Olympics athletes from southern Illinois, features 24 teams of 10u, 11u and 12u from all over southern Illinois, playing in a double-elimination tournament.

Bill Asbury, the organizer of the tournament said his friend Charles "Beaver" Rice - a big fan of softball and baseball - asked him to do a boys tournament after the resounding success of his girls tournament (which just had its 10th annual tournament two weeks ago).

Rice died in December 2014 and the tournament that would bear his name debuted in January 2015.

The tournament gets underway Friday night with a series of "free," or practice games for the 24 teams. Games are played on two fields inside the SI Center.

On Saturday, the games start at 7 a.m. The opening ceremonies will be held at noon, followed by a nontournament game played by Special Olympics athletes from southern Illinois, before the tournament resumes on both fields. Games are played well into the night.

On Sunday, games start at 7 a.m. and are played until the last trophy is handed out ... probably around 10:30 p.m., Asbury said.

Tickets are $6 per day or a $15 weekend pass. Doors open about an hour before the first games each day.