PONY Baseball Colt World Series Coming To Rent One Park

MARION, IL – The Southern Illinois Miners are proud to announce that along with the City of Marion, the PONY Baseball Colt World Series will be coming to Rent One Park in 2018 from August 3^rd– 8^th after a 47-year run in Lafayette, Indiana.

Now in its 65^th year, the Colt World Series is PONY Baseball’s second-longest running World Series event. It is a ten-team tournament consisting of two, five-team double-elimination brackets, as well as ninth and tenth place games. The ten teams will be:

– Four (4) from the continental United States, with one each hailing from the West, East, South and North Zones

– Four (4) international teams, including one each from the Asia-Pacific, European, Mexican, and Caribbean regions

– One (1) area host team from Southern Illinois

– One (1) city host team from Marion, Illinois

The Colt World Series will have a check-in date of August 2^nd. There will be four games played on Friday, August 3^rd, Saturday, August 4^th and Sunday, August 5^th. Three games will take place on Monday, August 6^th, with two games contested on Tuesday, August 7^th, and one to three contests on Wednesday, August 8^th. There will also be opening ceremonies, as well as a Champions League game, which is the PONY Baseball League developed for special needs children.

PONY Baseball and Softball (which stands for Protect Our Nation’s Youth) was founded in the summer of 1951 as a transition league for 13 and 14-year old players designed to take graduates of Little League baseball from that diamond to the regulation size diamond. Headquartered in Washington, Pennsylvania, PONY Baseball has developed a program that mirrors Major League Baseball rules and regulations as well as a postseason tournament system.  The World Series are hosted at almost every level of PONY baseball, and held across the United States.

Over 500,000 youth participate in the PONY organization each year. There are currently over 375 Major League Baseball players who are graduates of PONY Baseball, with Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, J.T. Snow and the late Tony Gwynn being just a few of the players who participated in PONY baseball. There were also six players picked in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft who played PONY Baseball.

Be sure to follow the Miners on Facebook, Twitter (@SIMiners), Instagram and Snapchat, and also online at southernillinoisminers.com as they prepare for the 2018 season at Rent One Park.

The Southern Illinois Miners are the Frontier League’s winningest franchise since debuting in 2007, winning the 2012 Frontier League Championship as well as division titles in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016. They have been awarded the Frontier League Organization of the Year award three times since their inception, and also set a new Frontier League attendance record in their inaugural season. For ticket information, contact the Rent One Park box office at (618) 998-8499. For any additional information, visit our website at www.southernillinoisminers.com.