By Drake Skleba

 

The Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Summer State Baseball Tournament, now called the Phil Lawler Classic, begins regional play on Friday. The state tournament is named after the late Phil Lawler, who passed away on April 23.

 

Regional play will be hosted at eight sights. The St. Charles East regional will get the tournament started with regional play-in games on Friday. The other regional sights, which will begin play Monday, will be at Glenbard South, Palatine, Fenwick, Libertyville, Sandburg, Prospect and Richards.

 

First-round games will be played on Monday at the home of the higher seeds. Quarterfinal and semifinal action will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Regional championship games are scheduled for Thursday July 22.

 

The eight regional champions will move to the Elite 8, which will begin play on Monday July 26 at North Central College in Naperville and Benedictine University in Lisle. The IHSBCA Phil Lawler Summer State Championship Game will be on Thursday July 29 at Benedictine University at 7:30 p.m. St. Rita is the defending summer state champs.

 

Last year, the Illinois High School Coaches Association changed the name of the tournament to the Phil Lawler Classic. Lawler served as the summer tournament director since 1984. Lawler, who was inducted into the IHSBCA Hall of Fame in 1997, was an associate baseball coach at Naperville Central for 29 years.

 

Lawler passed away during his beloved Redhawks’ Class 4A championship run, concluding with a 10-4 victory over St. Rita on June 12. Naperville Central was also awarded the overall State championship of Illinois by the PBR.

 

For a schedule of games, Click Here.