YOUR HOME FOR SHOWCASE SPORTS, COLLEGE RECRUITING AND GREAT VALUE IN TRAVEL DESTINATION
2023 Sweet Spot
Showcase Classic
Thursday, July 27th – Sunday, July 30th, 2023 | Hershey/Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Colleges Who Previously Attended This Event
2023 Tournament Information
College Showcase Camp: Wednesday, July 26th, 2023 430-8 at Lebanon Valley College
Age groups: 12U, 13U, 14U, 15U, 16U and 17U/18U (6 Divisions)
Pool play: Thursday, July 27th through Saturday, July 29th, 2023
Playoffs & Championships: Sunday, July 30th, 2023
- Please Note: - Teams will be accepted on a "First Paid-First Accepted" basis and entries will be limited only to the first 75 paid registrations.
- Registration Fee - 12U: $1199.00
- Registration Fee - 13U & older: $1,499.00
- Teams who register, but do not pay are not in the tournament and placed on the waiting list until payment is received. To avoid being placed on the waiting list and secure entry, payment must be made.
- 4 Game Guarantee: Pool play format will be used with all teams entered (*weather permitting*).
- Baseballs and lineup cards are included for this event as an added bonus to all teams and programs.
- Two (2) High School board certified Umpires are supplied for every game.
- Preliminary round games will take place at area high school and collegiate fields with the playoffs and championship games at college facilities. We use the top fields in the Hershey, Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania area such as Clipper Stadium, Lebanon Valley College; Penn St. Harrisburg and more.
- Current and past college and professional coaches are employed to evaluate the teams at the prime recruiting age groups during our events.
- NO GATE FEES EVER!
- Above and Beyond our Competition...We provide on-field reporting, pre and post game interviews with players and coaches, social media staff to promote players and teams, live in game statistics, player assessments and videos which get added to our player database and much much more!
Weather/Event Updates
We understand weather and mother nature can impact your event experience unfortunately. We strive to provide communication before you leave your home or hotel, when possible.
There are many factors that go into running events including the weather, leasing fields from private schools, town officials that get these fields ready along other "outside factors" that can determine delays, shortening of games or unfortunately cancelations as well. Please click on this link or the yellow button on our schedule page "Event/Weather Updates" for updates daily when weather can be an impact to your event.
Event/Weather Updates
2023 Pro & College Coaches Attending
Please check out our website regularly as we approach the our summer events for confirmed attendance of coaches, schools and scouts. Our rotator above will show you the quality of programs who attended this event previously and have expressed their interest in attending again.
Colleges/Organizations who are committed to attend in 2023!
- Allegheny College
- Boston Red Sox – MLB organization
- Bridgewater College
- Bridgewater State University
- Cabrini University
- Catholic University
- Cecil College
- Delaware State University
- Eastern University
- Felician College
- Gettysburg University
- Hood College
- Hudson Valley Community College
- Houston Astors – MLB organization
- Immaculate College
- Johnson & Wales University
- Lancaster Bible College
- Mansfield University
- Mary Baldwin University
- McDaniel College
- Millersville University
- Nichols College
- NY Mets – MLB Organization
- Penn State – Harrisburg
- Post University
- Rhode Island College
- Rivier University
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Rockland Community College
- Saint Thomas Aquinas College
- Salve Regina University
- Shenandoah University
- Stevenson University
- University of Massachusetts – Boston
- University of Sciences
- Wesleyan University
- Western Connecticut State University
- West Virginia Wesleyan University
- York College of Pennsylvania
2023 Teams Registered
We are very excited about this year’s event as we have expectations of 75+ teams attending our next event down in the Hershey, PA area. Leading things off with a College Showcase Camp the night prior to the tournament plus top college fields and teams from Canada, the Northeast and local favorites from the Mid-Atlantic this will be a home run! If you are interested in participating in one of the East Coast’s biggest and most attended events, please register shortly or inquire at operations@firecrackersports.com for more details.
See who is coming!
2023 Hotel Policy
ALL TRAVELING TEAM MANAGERS/CLUB ADMINISTRATORS MUST REVIEW OUR HOTEL POLICY & RULES BELOW. FAILURE TO KNOW OUR POLICY COULD SUBJECT YOUR TEAM TO NON-ACCEPTANCE OR REMOVAL FROM THE TOURNAMENT
BOOK HOTELS NOW!
To insure the quality of service provided during Firecracker Sports events, there is a Hotel Obligation Policy.
WHAT IS A “HOTEL OBLIGATION” TOURNAMENT?
Simply stated, if your team requires hotel accommodations (team traveling 75 miles or more to the event’s destination city) your team MUST stay at one of the approved participating tournament partner hotels. These participating hotels are reviewable by clicking on the “hotel” links on the tournament event page or on the main page of Firecracker Sports. Reservations can be made prior to being accepted and should be made ASAP as the hotels fill up quick.
WHY DOES THIS TOURNAMENT HAVE A “HOTEL OBLIGATION?”
We work very hard to keep our costs down and also balance the economic impact a tournament like ours can have towards the communities and programs we serve. The approved hotels on this website assist with both concerns and the following are the benefits to our programs:
- To make it manageable we have room nights “blocked” for our out-of-town teams from our participating tournament partner hotels.
- Because we do not use a Third Party Housing Group and we negotiate large blocks of rooms with the hotels directly, you’ll find a wide variety of best pricing and amenities from our hotels.
- Care in selecting location and proximity to our playing field. See our "fields/facilities" tab to find out where your team most likely will be playing so you can lock down hotels near your fields.
- All of our tournament hotels have been approved due to their quality and desire to give our guests the best event experience.
- Room inventory which is shared with the tournament to ensure that room demands can be met from year to year.
- By using participating tournament partner hotels, Firecracker Sports can offer our “Act of God” Clause. This states “Should this event be cancelled for reasons beyond the Event Organizer’s control (including weather), all outstanding reservations will be released at no charge to the participants.”
WHY ARE THERE PENALTIES FOR NOT ABIDING BY OUR HOTEL “HOTEL OBLIGATION” POLICY?
In order to best serve our out-of-town teams we need this to be a win-win for our guest teams and our hotel partners…If the rules are not followed then we jeopardize our relationships with these hotels and this could potentially add more costs to the teams.
WHAT ARE THE PENALTIES FOR NOT FOLLOWING OUR POLICY?
- Any accepted team to a tournament(s) who requires overnight accommodations and does not stay in one of our approved partner hotels will not be accepted to the tournament.
- An accepted team to a tournament(s) who requires overnight accommodations and double books their team at more than one hotel will not be accepted to the tournament or will be removed from the tournament.
- Teams who do not stay in our partner hotels will risk forfeiting their games and not be allowed to return to the tournament next year.
WHAT IF OUR TEAM DOES NOT GET ACCEPTED AND WE HAVE A HOTEL RESERVATION?
Teams will be able to cancel their hotel reservation if they are not accepted to the tournament.
Hershey Park Discount Passes
Whether you’re looking for thrills or fun rides for the kids, you’ll find an attraction at Hershey Park that’s just right! Some of the country’s fastest, tallest, and wildest rides are at this theme park! There are a wide range of amazing water attractions at this theme park to enjoy while competing in the Sweet Spot Showcase Classic next summer!
We are offering exclusive discount tickets through our website for all tournament participants, families, coaches and friends to enjoy. Check back in the spring to buy your exclusive discounted tickets, which include 1 day passes and some other options!
Contact us at operations@firecrackersports.com to buy discount tickets, on or after April 1st!
2023 Fields & Facilities
2023 Tournament Rules
Thank you for your interest in Firecracker Sports and support for our baseball events. We have updated several rules so there is more clarity to lineups, tie-breakers and other dynamics like home vs. away. We answer all of your biggest questions regarding rules by checking out our “Team Information” section which includes event rules such as age requirements, tie-breakers, lineups and much more like insurance, rosters and payments. Please click on the button below for more advanced details.
If you have any questions or concerns please hit the chat button at the bottom of your screen or email operations@firecrackersports.com for more details.
Official Tournament Rules
2023 Team Roster Forms
Thank you for your interest and support of our Firecracker Sports events. In order to provide you the best experience possible, we request the entry of your team's roster via the link below. The deadline for all summer tournaments is April 1st. This will allow us to promote your student athletes to the attending college coaches ahead of time along with promote the players who have committed to play in college, giving an extra boast not only to the student athletes but your programs as well!
We have created a brand new and innovative website that is user-friendly for our parents, players and coaches. With this exciting new addition, we have created a one-stop shop for all your showcase baseball needs. You can create a user account, setup your teams, register for any event, make payments plus enter your roster one time and being done for the entire calendar year! This platform also will be where you see hotels, shopping, schedules, scores, standings and playoff implications right from your mobile device. We hope you enjoy this special benefit and make your life easier.
Enter Team Roster Information right here!
2023 Tournament Schedule
We work on releasing our schedules 2 MONTHS prior to any event we host and run throughout the calendar year. Once our event becomes full we begin to put the teams, fields and pool play together so you can plan your trip better to Hershey, Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This allows everyone to plan in advance their hotels, social events but also let the college programs you are interested in, know your playing times if they are interested in attending.
We will release schedules directly to the coaches when they have submitted all paperwork and payments, as early as February 1st. Public release for this event in 2023 will be June 16th, listed right here. We try to maintain first class customer service from the point of registration, all the way through our final Championship game of our events, so your experience always remains first class!
Please check out the latest scores and standings of our current event held for the Sweet Spot Showcase Classic.
2023 SCHEDULES
2022 Playoffs/Tie-Breaker System
12U Division
- We will have a championship on Saturday, July 30th at the Paxatonia Little League Field #1
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 2 teams will advance according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- The championship game will take place at 9am.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
13U Division
- We will have a championship on Sunday, July 31st at Clipper Stadium
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 2 teams will advance according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- The championship game will take place at Clipper Stadium at 9am.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
14U Division
- We will have a championship on Sunday, July 31st at Clipper Stadium.
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 4 teams will advance (2 pool winners along with 2 wild cards) according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- Semi-final games will take place at Lancaster Bible College along with Lancaster Mennonite School at 830am.
- The championship game will take place at Clipper Stadium at 11:15am.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
15U Division
- We will have a championship on Sunday, July 31st at Clipper Stadium.
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 4 teams will advance (3 pool winners along with 1 wild card) according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- Semi-final games will take place at Lancaster Bible College along with Lancaster Mennonite School at 10:45am.
- The championship game will take place at Clipper Stadium at 1:30pm.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
16U/17U Division
- We will have a championship on Sunday, July 31st at Clipper Stadium.
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 6 teams will advance (5 pool winners plus 1 Wild Card) according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- Quarterfinal and semifinal games will take place at 9am and 1115am at Memorial Field - Hershey High School and Nye Elementary Field - Lower Dauphin's Varsity.
- The championship game will take place at Clipper Stadium at 3:45pm.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
18U/19U Division
- We will have a championship on Saturday, July 30th at Clipper. Stadium.
- All teams will be seeded after pool play is completed. The top 2 teams will advance (2 Pool winners) according to the tie-breaker system, listed below.
- The championship game will take place at Clipper Stadium at 9am.
- There will be a short award and trophy presentation at the end of each championship game.
TIE-BREAKER SYSTEM (for advancing from pool play to playoffs):
- Pool Play – Overall Record/Winning Percentage
- Overall record in our tournaments will be used first to determine playoff seedings.
- In the event a tournament is impacted by the weather or other unforeseen issues, resulting in all teams in the same division not having played an equal amount of games, winning percentage will be used instead of overall record to determine playoff seedings.
- Head to Head – (Two and Three Teams)
- If two teams are tied – The head to head winner in that matchup advances.
- If three teams are tied – If one team has defeated the other two teams, that team advances. If not go to #3.
- Pool play runs allowed
- Pool play run differential
- Pool play runs scored
- Coin flip
Sweet Spot Showcase Classic Scores & Standings
We have stepped up your tournament experience by launching a mobile friendly scores, standings and brackets application to make your experience even better. Now you can see scores, schedules and standings right from your mobile device as soon as the games are concluded. No more calls, emails to find out where, when and who you are playing. Through our app, you can find the GPS location of fields, get notified of time changes, incase of inclement weather but more importantly know where your team is placed for standings after wins or unfortunately, losses.
Please check out the latest scores and standings of our events, past and present, held in Hershey, Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
2023 SCHEDULES/RESULTS
Hershey/Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania Destination Information
As part of our events, we provide more than just baseball on the field. We like to provide opportunities for the coaches, families and players attending our events to enjoy different social events and activities in these destination communities.
Please find these links helpful in planning your summer travels for hotels, restaurants and various attractions for our Sweet Spot Showcase Classic in Hershey and Lancaster, PA this summer. We look forward to seeing you there!
Visit Hershey/Harrisburg: Check out more Information
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