The chalk that surrounded home plate and trailed down the first- and third-base lines at Freeport Borough’s James Swartz Memorial Field hadn’t begun to fade away before Freeport International Baseball Invitational officials were thinking ahead to next year’s weeklong event in the Alle-Kiski Valley.

“There’s a lot of positive energy and different ideas coming out of the week,” FIBI president Chuck Sarver said.

The FIBI board is set to meet Aug. 5 at the United Methodist Church in Freeport Borough. The meeting is open to the public.

“Volunteers are always needed,” FIBI secretary DJ Brestensky said. “We’re always looking for people to help, even if it is for just the week of the games. We have such good feelings from the week, especially after the fireworks where everyone is thanking each other and exchanging phone numbers. It gives us motivation to move forward and work on next year.”

When planning for the next Freeport International week, Sarver said discussions often turn to an international presence.

Because of travel restrictions and other factors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, there were no international players at this year’s event.

Sarver said there are hopes, if the restrictions are lessened or removed, of having the Puerto Rican contingent return, as well as teams and players from Japan, France and other countries.

Sarver said next year’s Freeport International will be one of the final two weeks in July, and international availability often is one factor in pinning down the exact week.

Uncertainty with the coronavirus pandemic, Sarver said, made planning for this year’s Freeport International a challenge.

“It would’ve been easy to pull the plug and walk away for a year, but that’s not in my blood,” he said. “I didn’t ask anybody to do anything they didn’t want to do, but the board and a lot of volunteers were willing, and they worked so hard leading up and also during the week to make it a success. It was a lot of the little things that people normally don’t see.”

The week of games concluded Saturday evening with an all-star contest featuring players from many of the two dozen participating teams.

“It was a good game, definitely,” Sarver said. “It was very entertaining. A couple of kids hit home runs.”

Rain toyed with game organizers at times during the week, and a couple of games were suspended or canceled. But clearer skies and warm temperatures prevailed as the weekend arrived.

The annual fireworks display Saturday evening lit up the skies above Freeport to close the 26th annual festivities.

“Playing baseball, considering all the circumstances, was our goal,” Sarver said. “I think the enthusiasm was increased because many of the kids hadn’t played a lot this spring and summer. The energy level was high. I was really happy with the competition. There were a lot of one-run games.

“We knew back in March or April that we weren’t going to get Puerto Rico or any foreign players. I put it to the board to see who we would be able to get locally. We talked with Mercyhurst often, and we knew they would be on board. There were a lot of changes with the teams and what the fields ended up being, but we were all ecstatic with the end results. Everybody got to play some baseball and meet new people. We had some nice crowds during the week considering not knowing what to expect.”

Brett Burger, Springdale’s varsity baseball coach, fronted a group of players from high schools such as Highlands, Fox Chapel, Plum, Springdale and Woodland Hills for a couple of games under the Deer Creek Dynamos moniker.

Jake Arner and Chase Godfrey from Highlands represented the Dynamos at Saturday’s all-star game.

“It’s a fun event to be a part of each year,” said Burger, who is looking forward to taking on a larger role as a new member of the FIBI board.

“We didn’t have any practice time before our games. We actually played pretty well our first game. On Saturday, we played Freeport, and they beat us pretty good. But we had a good time playing. We’ve done this in years past where we had kids from different schools playing together (at the Freeport International), and they end up being friends for life.”

FIBI officials were pleased to see the interest in the games. In addition to Swartz Field in Freeport, fields in Lower Burrell, Worthington and Etna hosted games during the five days of action.

“In recent years, the turnout wouldn’t pick up until the end of the week where we would see large crowds,” Brestensky said.

“Every day during the week, we saw large turnouts for games, even the day games. That gave me such a good feeling to know that we could host a lot of people while following the proper distancing and safety guidelines. Seeing the community coming out and joining us was great. Hopefully, this left a positive taste in everyone’s mouths for future events.”

A new FIBI website — freeportinternationals.com — launched Monday with content not only about the week that was but with information about the future of the event. Brestensky credits FIBI volunteer Brandon Bowser for his help in making the new website a reality.

“We were working hard during last week to add some more things to get it up and running so people are updated and already thinking about next year,” Brestensky said. “We are pretty excited with how it turned out. There is plenty more to come.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)