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The Region 5 American Legion Baseball Tournament will have a familiar look to it this weekend.When play begins at 9 a.m. Friday at the Pittston Area Primary Center in Hughestown, six of the eight participants from last year will be back.Defending tournament champion and fourth-place state finisher Swoyersville &#8212; which has won four of the last five regional titles &#8212; is one of the returnees as the No. 2 seed from the Wyoming Valley.Swoyersville was defeated by Mountain Post last weekend in the tournament championship for Mountain Post&#8217;s first league title in a decade. MP finished third in the region last year and returns many faces from last year&#8217;s squad.Hazleton Stripes &amp; Strikes, the third-place team team from the Wyoming Valley, Berwick (runner-up from the Susquehanna Valley League), Bloomsburg (Susquehanna Valley champion) and District 11 champion Dickson City also return to this year&#8217;s event.The two newcomers for this year&#8217;s event are West Scranton, the runner-up from District 11 (teams that play in the Lackawanna League) and Tri-Boro, the third-place team from D11.Even though, six teams are returning from last year, there are no first-round rematches from a year ago.When the tournament opens at 9 a.m., Swoyersville will face Tri-Boro. Hazleton follows with its opener vs. Dickson City at 11:30 a.m. followed by Bloomsburg against West Scranton at 2 p.m. Mountain Post vs. Berwick at 4:30 p.m. wraps up the first day of action.There&#8217;s sure to be plenty of rematches after the first round because the only returning squad to go two-and-out last year was Bloomsburg. And those rematches could be an advantage this time around.&#8220;I think it does (became advantageous) to an extent,&#8221; Mountain Post manager Tony Caladie said about seeing so many familiar teams for the second straight year. &#8220;Berwick, for example. I saw the Pinterich name (Berwick coaches Rich and Brian Pinterich). We know the type of ball they like to play. And (Jared) Marshman is back pitching.&#8220;So we&#8217;ve seen them last year. We also saw Dickson City last year, and it does give us an advantage of how we&#8217;re going to match up with them.&#8221;While the Wyoming Valley has dominated the event in the past with 14 tournament titles in the last 17 years, Mountain Post and Hazleton have not been part of the run, even though they have been part of the event on multiple occasions.It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s been missing from Mountain Post&#8217;s resume that Caladie hopes will finally happen &#8212; if the ball bounces the team&#8217;s way in a long and grueling five-day tournament.&#8220;For us, it&#8217;s gonna be a matter of getting hot at the right time,&#8221; Caladie said. &#8220;I feel like if we can score some runs and allow our pitching staff to be relaxed, get the lead and keep the pitchers relaxed, we&#8217;ll be OK.&#8220;It would be huge for our program. The legion guys are pumped up right now. We&#8217;re just gonna have to get hot and play good baseball.&#8221;The trio of Wyoming Valley teams have all had success against each other this season. Mountain Post enters with a 17-2 record and both losses coming to Swoyersville and Hazleton. Swoyersville is 16-3 with two of its losses to Mountain Post. Stripes &amp; Strikes (13-7) is 1-5 against Swoyersville and Mountain Post.All three squads have more than one pitcher than can carry them in a tournament where quality arms are a necessity, and will make winning for the opposition a tough task. Swoyersville is a two-time state champion and has finished no worse than fourth in the state in four of the last five years.Hazleton packs a punch with many post grads on the roster combined with those from the Hazleton Area High School team that advanced to the state tournament this spring. Both of those clubs will be hard to beat for any team in the field Caladie said.&#8220;I think they&#8217;ll definitely be a handful because of other teams not knowing them well. If their pitchers settle in, the other teams are going to find it hard,&#8221; Caladie said of Swoyersville and Hazleton. &#8220;They both run the bases well and pitch well so they definitely have an advantage on the pitching side against other teams.&#8221;The tournament winner advances to the Pennsylvania State Tournament, held from July 27-31 at Showers Field in DuBois.Region 5 Tournament(all games at Pittston Area Primary Center, Hughestown)FridayGame 1: Swoyersville vs. Tri-Boro, 9 a.m.Game 3: Hazleton vs. Dickson City, 11:30 a.m.Game 2: Bloomsburg vs. West Scranton, 2 p.m.Game 4: Mountain Post vs. Berwick, 4:30 p.m.SaturdayConsolation games, 9 and 11:30 a.m.Winner&#8217;s bracket games, 2 and 4 p.m.SundayConsolation games, 9:30 a.m. and noonWinner&#8217;s bracket final, 2:30 p.m.MondayGames at 2:30 and 5 p.m.TuesdayGames at 2:30 and 5 p.m. (if necessary)<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave RosengrantFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div>

Trio of Wyoming Valley Legion teams ready to go for Region 5 tournament