Eligibility: Players must be playing in Bridgewater Baseball's current spring program. Most players play by grade, however, some children may be eligible for two tournament age groups.  For example, a child in 4th grade, who is 10 years old by April 30th, can tryout for two teams - the 10u team with their school grade, or the 9u team with their age group.  In that case, the player would be on the younger side of the 10U team, and the older side of the 9U team.  Players may play down below their grade level as long as they are age eligible, but they may not play up beyond their grade level (a 3rd grader may not play 10u; unless they are behind a school year and truly age eligible for the next level up).

Bridgewater Recreation Baseball Players in Leagues Minors and Majors (age and grade qualified):
If a player wants to tryout for the 9U, 10U, 11U or 12U tournament teams, participation in the tryouts are mandatory. The tryouts run more than one day and players must attend both days. Tryouts dates are listed in the table below. All players must register online.  If you have any issues being able to make both days, please send an e-mail to your age group contact. 

11U and 12U tryouts will have a different format from other age groups.  In the event that we have a significant amount of players register for a particular age group tryout, we may conduct pre-tryouts where individual players are invited to participate in a pre-tryout.  Players on the A, B and C teams will automatically be part of the regular tryout.  All other players are required to participate in the pre-tryout.  The main reason for this format change is, at 11U, parents and players know they must try out or participate on an 11U tournament baseball team in order to qualify for 12U Cooperstown trip.  Due to this requirement the number of participants has made the tryouts format difficult to manage. The Bridgewater tournament committee and board have approved the change in format to a pre-tryout to be invited to the actual tryout.  Players who do not get invited to the actual tryout will be offered an option based on their evaluation to either play tournament or summer recreation baseball.

Registraion Fees: $350
The Registration fee for the summer tournament team includes the following:

Teams are responsible for covering the cost of any leagues (including umpire fees) and tournaments.

Tournament Teams (usually "A" level) that participate in the Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth Districts tournament have the potential to progress to the State, Regional or National Competitions.  While most teams opt to participate in local tournaments, these tournaments may require travel on the part of its players.  Please understand that while we are immensely proud of the achievements of our players, we cannot use funds from the program that is supported by all league families to contribute toward the travel of a few select travel players.  Families should know in advance and plan for the possibility that travel may be a part of the commitment of participating on your team. Fundraising through securing sponsorships is an option that teams can pursue, details of which must first be cleared with the Board of Directors.

Registration:  Final registration is in person at the day of the tryout when you sign in.  Generally, each age group has one coordinator that will send out information in advance about the tryouts.  They will track a list of names of pre-registered players interested in playing tournament that year as well as parents interested in managing a team.

Volunteer Coaching: Minimum coaching requirements are Rutgers SAFETY course, Concussion protocol online course and the successful completion of our background check (Background checks run by other organizations or agencies are not acceptable). There may be additional requirements based on Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth rules.  The BBSI BOD will review all volunteer staff requests along with the list of returning volunteers before making any determinations. BBSI makes no guarantees that a request to be a volunteer coach etc will be fulfilled. 

Team Formation:  Generally, we have two teams at each age group, many age groups have grown to three teams. At the 7u level,assuming there are two teams, the talent is split evenly between teams (e.g. - Americans and Nationals). At 8u and above, players are evaluated at tryouts and the top 11 are placed on the “A” team. The next tier of 11 will play on the “B” team, and the next tier of 11 or 12 will play on the “C” team. The number of teams at every age level will be determined by the total number of players who tryout, with the consideration that there needs to be enough pitching talent to support all the teams.
 
Tryouts:  Players should plan to participate on both scheduled tryout days for each age group.  If a player cannot make both days you must contact the coordinator for the age group to let them know why in advance.  Players who are age eligible to play at two different levels may tryout for both of those levels, but must attend tryouts for both age groups.  Should that player make a team at both levels though, they may only play on one team, and they will need to make the decision immediately once notified about team placement.  In tournament baseball, not all players will make the team, some players will be cut.   Players will be rated objectively at the tryouts by a team of assessors from another age level in our league.

Players are selected to a team based on the assessors evaluation of the players during the tryouts and previous coaches evaluations.  There are two days for players to tryout.  This is for the players to demonstrate their skills and for assessors to get a full evaluation of the players.  Players can come back the second day and show their real skills after having an average first day.  Players are grouped together by skill level and against players with similar skills to refine the selection process for a team.  Ideally, the manager, would be a volunteer parent whos child falls in the "Core" group of players.  However, the Tryout committe and BBSI Board reserves the right to select a manager at their discretion whos player may not fall into the "Core".   The "Core" players are determinde by coaches evaluations and tryout scores and may fluctuate between 6 to 8 players.  The "Core" players are selected by the evaluators and given to the 'A' team manager first.  The manager can not "cut" the core players.  However the core players once offered a spot may choose to decline the offer.  The evaluators provide an additional list of players to the manager from which the manager has discretion to select the remaining players of the team until all 11 and in some cases 12 roster spots are filled.  The process continues in this manner to select the 'B' team, the 'C' team etc.  Until all roster spots are full.   Bridgewater does not like to cut any player as the goal is for all players to play at some level.  Instead of cutting players, a team could be formed by recruiting players to fill out the team.  Beyond the 'C' team, there typically is enough skilled players to form only one team capable of competing in tournament level play.  Although it's often encouraged for more players and teams to play tournament baseball, the level of play and appropriate tournament venues is difficult to find for teams of less skill. It is very discouraging for players and teams to lose a high percentage of their games.  If it is determined that a player is not selected for A, B, C and D, the next option would be to play summer recreation baseball to improve their skills or play down one age group if they are age eligible.  Players can tryout the next tournament season.

Grouping the players by skills typically takes looking at each player on the first day of tryouts. The second day is used to refine the selections to determine which team a player might be placed. Players who standout in a group can be moved to a different group.  Bridgewater has a very large turnout for some age groups. There may be tryouts where the players are grouped by skill level the first day.  This is not something that will happen at the younger age groups (7U and 8U).  It is not often, but it can happen that a player moves more than 1 level up or down from one year to the next.

Players will be contacted after day 2 of the tryout (unless notified otherwise). Players must be prepared to make a decision to play on the team selected.  Every player trying out will be evaluated and given the option to play on the team selected on.  Player may option to play on a B team vs an A team. 

Commitment:  The tournament program is competitive-level baseball which requires a commitment from both the player and the player’s family. Commitment also includes players and their families conduct and behavior during the season. Tournament Baseball is a privilege, not a right. Parents and players are expected to conduct themselves in a courteous and respectful manner. Inappropriate behavior by parents or players that is deemed detrimental to the program or the team will impact a player's right to make a tournament team. Tryouts are held in the fall.  Practices start in January.  Practice (depending on the coach) is once a week during the Spring Recreation season and then 1-2 times per week depending on the game schedule during the summer season.   Most tournament teams will begin their spring season with a once a week game league, like USABL (Sunday games). The summer season begins with the Bridgewater Baseball Memorial Blast tournament held over Memorial Day weekend at our complex.  Other tournaments begin at the conclusion of the school year, and generally conclude by the end of July. From mid-May through the end of July, players and families should expect to practice and or play games multiple times during the week and multiple games on the weekend.   We try to be flexible and work with other Spring activities, but Spring/Summer baseball should be the primary emphasis (e.g. - not soccer, roller hockey, etc.).

While vacations are not out of the question, absences are discouraged, and the team and players depend on each other to be there through multiple tournaments and practices. Please remember that our summer tournament season lasts about seven weeks.  Rosters are kept to a minimum, to maximize playing time during every game. If a player and their family are not willing to make a full-time commitment to the program, they should probably consider the summer recreation league as an alternative.  

Remember, if you do plan on playing tournament and also taking vacations during the tournament season, your child could be taking a roster spot away from a player who is willing to make a 100% commitment to the program.  Missing games due to vacation or other activities could result in less playing time.  The intensity of the program depends on the coach and the collective intentions of the team’s parents.  You should expect the “A” team to be a highly competitive and stricter in it’s approach to the commitment.   You should also expect lesser intensity as you move to a “B” team and so on for a “C” team.

Tournaments or League play:  Bridgewater Baseball tournament teams will participate in our own tournaments (Bridgewater Memorial Weekend Tournament (12U all teams, A & B teams from all other age groups) and the Bridgewater Summer Invitational Tournament in July) and in 3-4 other tournaments or a summer league (typically the New Providence Green League) at the teams discretion.  In addition, many of our more competitive teams will also participate in the Cal Ripken District tournament (A & B teams only) – a progressive competition which could lead to States, Regional and World Series level tournaments. Most tournaments play 3-4 pool play games before the playoff/championship rounds, and it is very possible that multiple games will be scheduled in a single day and also sometimes to accommodate multiple tournaments.  In a typical tournament season, most teams will play between 15 and 25 games during the seven week period from mid-June through the end of July.

At 8u, the teams play in 3-4 tournaments.  At 9u-12u teams will start to play in 3-5 tournaments.  Generally, the “A” teams will also play in the District tournament.  In addition, the “C” teams typically play in a 12-18 game league but also can play in 1-2 tournaments.  Each team has the option to select tournaments or league play. 

Tournament or League fees:  The registration fees include uniform costs, overhead costs (covers mortgage payments, utilities, field lighting payment and other misc. costs), baseballs and umpire fees for Bridgewater tournaments.  Each team can select tournament play, league play or a mix.  The registration fees is set up to cover enough a tournament play in a season but on occasion teams enter more tournaments than their fees cover.  In those cases, teams will be asked for addition fees to cover those costs.  

Teams that play in leagues might have low entry fees, but each team has to cover the costs of umpires for each game.  Depending on the league entered, the umpire costs can be split by each team or the home team covers all the umpire costs.  In either case, the registration fee covers the costs of umpires by an estimated number of games and umpires per game.

To play tournament baseball and receive this level of competitive play, Bridgewater tournament baseball fees are very reasonable and provide great value.

Sample Summer Tournament Schedule (subject to change)

Geography:  In addition to our “home” tournaments at our complex, teams will travel only as far as surrounding counties (Somerset, Hunterdon, Union and Middlesex), unless they qualify for the Cal Ripken State or Regional tournaments, which could require a little more travel.

Cooperstown Tournament:  At the 12u age level, the tournament teams travel and participate in a week long 50/70 tournament in Cooperstown, NY.  It is a fantastic trip and represents the culmination and reward for a lot of hard work and commitment by the players (and parents).  It is a truly memorable experience for them.  The participation and preparation for this trip includes fundraising activities.  It costs approximately $20,000 per team.  The team fund raises to cover the cost.  If not, the parents must pay or make up the difference from the fund raised amounts.

In order to be eligible to tryout at 12u and participate in the Cooperstown trip, players must have at least tried out on both days, been offered a roster spot, and accepted or denied the roster spot or played at 11u in the Bridgewater program, unless there were only 3 teams at the 11U level and players from the 11U teams choose not to return for the 12U season, then players should tryout during the 12U tryout for open roster spots. Players who move into the Bridgewater-Raritan area are eligible to try out for 12u but must have played 11u from the town they moved from and play in the Spring Recreation program. In addition, if at 11u you are selected for a team and you accept the roster spot, you must play if you want to play at 12u.  You cannot try out for 1 age group, accept the roster spot and then decide to tryout for another age group per year.  If you try out and do not make the team, you will still be able to try out for 12u (and obviously play if you make it at 12u).  We do not want to reward someone who has not supported the program and just comes out to go on the Cooperstown trip versus players and parents that have participated and supported the program for multiple years. 

You may only play one year at the 12u level (you cannot participate in the Cooperstown trip twice).