缅北禁地

Jul 15, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

The Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball Region 6 tournament will include only four teams this year.

That’s the lowest number of participants battling for a spot in the state playoffs in Ron Popovich’s 16 years as the Region 6 director.

“Yes, this is the first time we’ve had a four-team regional since I’ve been doing this,” said Popovich, a 1981 Albert Gallatin graduate who was a four-year letterman in baseball for the Colonials.

The reason isn’t necessarily due to a lack of teams, according to Popovich.

“The biggest factor is a lot of teams, when it comes to this time of year, have kids on vacation, kids doing travel ball, so they find it hard to field enough players to participate,” Popovich explained. “We went down to six teams last year and then we had one drop out after the first game. I just wasn’t going to fight it this year and just decided to go with four teams.”

Those four are Belle Vernon and Smithfield-Fairchance out of the Fayette league and Blackhawk and Baden ouf of the Beaver league. Belle Vernon was the regular-season and tournament champion of the Fayette league.

The three-day, double-elimination Region 6 tournament, hosted by Blackhawk and played at Chippewa Park in Beaver Falls, begins on Saturday.

If Popovich has his way, however, in the future the tournament would take place during the week instead of on a weekend.

“In the past when I first started, the Legion tournaments, the regions and the states, began on a Monday and finished on a Friday, and we had a lot of teams involved,” Popovich pointed out. “Now it’s weekends. I’m trying to get that moved next year to again be played during the week.

“I think if we do that you’d have fewer teams drop out because a lot of them have kids now that do travel ball, and travel ball is always Saturday and Sunday and sometimes kids leave Friday night. Because of that, a lot of times I have coaches call me and say we don’t have enough kids, can’t make it, can’t do it.

“So I’m really pushing to move them to weekdays again. I think in the long run, if we do that, more kids will be available and then they’ll see how well it’s run and more teams will want to be involved. I still feel Legion is more organized and just as competitive as travel ball.”

There were seven teams competing in the Fayette league, which remains the strongest in the area, this past season. In addition to Belle Vernon and Smithfield-Fairchance, the five other teams were Uniontown, Charleroi, Carmichaels, Brownsville and Thomas Jefferson.

“There is no league in Allegheny County,” said Popovich as to why Thomas Jefferson played in the Fayette league. “And we actually had four teams from there this year with TJ, Plum, Kiski and Monroeville. TJ was good with playing in the Fayette league. We’ve actually had Baldwin in our league before, too.

“I let those other three teams in my region, Plum, Kiski and Monroeville, play with the Westmoreland league just because I’m sure they wouldn’t have traveled clear down to here to play when they could just go down the road a little bit.”

As for the Fayette league, “Connellsville not having a team this season was a big hurt because they had a great team last year,” Popovich said. “They just ran into a situation where they had a lot of seniors and lost a lot of players last year. They do have a strong Junior Legion team that made the state playoffs, so I think they’ll be back next year.

“I think Fayette was still good and competitive. Belle Vernon was strong again. Tony Watson coaching the Smithfield-Fairchance team brought a little bit more spirit back to them and they’ve played surprisingly well. Uniontown was strong as usual. Carmichaels seems like they’re going to be back. TJ has some young players. We could have eight teams next year.”

Popovich also pointed out that Junior Legion baseball is flourishing in the area.

“We’re really starting to pick up in that area which is a really good sign,” Popovich said.

As for himself, Popovich, who has been a successful Legion manager, is pondering a return as a high school coach if the opportunity arises.

“I was an assistant coach 18 years at LH, spent a year as an assistant at AG under Shawn Chory, then was their head coach for seven years,” Popovich said. “I’ve been thinking about that. It’s definitely something I’d like getting back into some day.”