HYBA Babe Ruth city tournament begins tonight

Last week it was the youngsters, now the teenagers get their turn at Havre's baseball glory.

Starting tonight at Legion Field in Havre, the Havre Youth Baseball Association will hold its annual Babe Ruth League tournament, and two opening-round games are on the slate for the tournament, which features six total teams.

Tonight's first-round games start with Chinook taking on Fort Belknap at 5:30 p.m., while Northern Montana Hospital plays Rocky Boy at 7:30. NMH is the overall No. 3 seed, while Chinook is seeded fourth, Fort Belknap fifth and Rocky Boy sixth.

The Babe Ruth tourney is a double-elimination format, and a true double-elimination bracket at that, as teams have an opportunity to come through the loser-out bracket and still earn the championship.

The tournament continues on Friday night with the top two teams in action. In the winner's bracket semifinals, top-seeded Wells Fargo will take on the Chinook/Fort Belknap winner at 5:30 p.m. and second-seeded Optimist will play the NMH/Rocky Boy winner at 7:30 p.m.

The first two loser-out games will take place on Saturday afternoon, one at 3 p.m. and one at 5 p.m. The winner's bracket game on Saturday night at 7 p.m. will pit the two remaining undefeated teams against each other with the winner advancing to Monday's title tilt. The tournament continues on Sunday with the fourth-place game at 5 p.m. and the third-place game at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the third-place game will move on to the championship outing, but must defeat the lone remaining unbeaten team twice in order to claim the league title.

Everything wraps up on Monday night with the championship game set for 5:30 p.m. and an "if necessary game slated for 8 p.m.

Once again, the annual HYBA Babe Ruth tournament starts tonight with games at 5:30 and 7:30 at Legion Field in Havre, and the tourney runs all weekend long, wrapping up on Monday night at 5:30 p.m.