Monday marked the first day of the 79th AAABA Tournament. Monday afternoon, the AAABA Tournament was back in action as some local teams look to keep the National Championship in the area.
The AAABA Tournament has called Johnstown home for 77 of its 79 years in existence and hundreds of MLB Players have come through Johnstown in the Tournament, including players from Johnstown, Altoona, and Elk County franchises.
On Monday at noon, fourteen of sixteen baseball teams started their journey to winning the Amateur Championship. Four local teams are among those looking to come out on top, but it was a rough start for those teams. Both Altoona teams lost to teams from Butler and Buffalo, and Johnstown’s Mainline Pharmacy lost to Columbus.
Mainline Pharmacy became the second Johnstown team in Tournament history to win it all last year, but this season they come in as the lower seeded Johnstown team. That top seed — Martella’s Pharmacy — played Junior Pioneers from Zanesville Ohio on Monday night. Pitcher Jared Dowey told us what’s unique about the AAABA Tournament compared to other’s hes played in. Dowey saying: “The people that come out to support you. You’re younger and you’re traveling around and people and families don’t travel as much. But when you get to represent a big city like Johnstown and have all those people come, it really means a lot to the guys in the dugout.”
Manager Kerry Pfeil told us the road to the title is through Johnstown or New Orleans – and that New Orleans team started strong Monday with a 13-1 win. Martella’s Pharmacy looked to do the same Monday night. Martella’s would fall to Zanesville in a close 3-2 game following the recording of this video.
