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Keith Jorgensen Memorial Baseball Tournament cancelled due to weather

Oct 3, 2017 | 2:50 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The first brush of winter touched down in Southern Alberta on Monday and a casualty of the snow is this weekend’s Keith Jorgensen Memorial Baseball Tournament.

The tournament was supposed to begin today, and run until Sunday, Oct. 8, but Under The Lights and the Prairie Baseball Academy has announced its cancelled due to the weather.

Opening ceremonies were scheduled to take place on at Spitz Stadium tonight at 6 p.m.

The tournament pays tribute to Keith Jorgensen who passed away last year at the age of 70.

Tournament Coordinator Jesse Sawyer says due to the snow fall, it was going to be a real challenge to get the fields ready for competition by Thursday.

The double round robin, five inning format tournament was going to feature 12 teams from 8 baseball academies in Alberta.

Organizers say this tournament is a showcase for some of the most outstanding young talent in the province, and a great way to finish the fall baseball season.

Those who knew him say Jorgensen, a Lethbridge native, had a tremendous passion for baseball, and played a significant role in the development and success of the Prairie Baseball Academy.

For Jorgensen, it was all about giving kids a chance to play the game and this event is a perfect representation of that vision.

Beverly Jorgensen, Keith’s wife of 50 years, says he would be excited and humbled that a provincial tournament of this magnitude would be named after him.

“Baseball was probably his first love. Because he was a teacher he wanted to inspire young kids to love the game as much as he did and a result have a greater joy of life,” she said. 

The emphasis of the tournament is on getting competitive games for all of the teams, so each of them will play roughly 30 innings over the course of the tournament.