Greenwood’s Connor Cline hits a double May 23, 2017, during the Gators’ 2-0 win over Bowling Green at Warren East High School. The inaugural Greenwood High School Hot Rods Classic will be played March 23-24 at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The Greenwood baseball team will get a chance to kick off the season at Bowling Green Ballpark with the announcement of the inaugural Greenwood High School Hot Rods Classic to be played March 23-24 at the minor league stadium.

The tournament will feature Greenwood, Adair County, Barren County and Louisville DeSales playing in a round-robin format, a total of six games in the two days.

Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said he expects everything to be finalized over the next few weeks and hopes the event can be something similar to the Wes Strader Classic, which has emerged as a showcase for prep basketball in the area.

“The plan is to kind of start to bring in some top-notch teams that first weekend, to kind off kick off the season,” Jaggers said. “It’s definitely a draw, even for local teams, to play there. I know our kids are excited about playing there. We want to build it up, have something special for the kids playing in it, and kind of kick-start the season.”

Jaggers said he approached the Hot Rods initially because Greenwood’s field is being redone and he was looking for somewhere to play home varsity games.

“We met and they said they would like to host a tournament every year and we jumped on board,” Jaggers said.

The Hot Rods are no strangers to hosting baseball events. Bowling Green Ballpark has hosted the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, the Mid-South Conference Tournament, select Western Kentucky games, and annually hosts individual prep baseball games.

“For us it was a no-brainer,” Hot Rods GM/COO Eric C. Leach said. “Several years ago I pitched this idea. I had a passion to want to do a high school tournament and a lot of it stems from (the success) of the Rafferty’s Bowl in football. Basketball has a showcase event, so I was like why not? Why not do a baseball showcase out at the ballpark?

“It’s an opportunity for high schools to get other teams to come down, maybe attract down the road some high-profile programs to come to Bowling Green, and for us to showcase the ballpark.”

The tournament will come three days after Bowling Green Ballpark will play host to a college baseball game between WKU and Louisville. Leach said it’s the perfect chance to get his staff prepared for the Hot Rods season opener April 5.

“We always viewed that as a dress rehearsal for Hot Rods games, a chance for us to get our staff into position,” Leach said. “Now we are adding this and we are going to get to kick this off and have seven games before we have a Hot Rods game. It’s a great way to kick off the year and prepare for the Hot Rods opener.”{&end}