Benz baseball tourney turns six this weekend
The sixth annual Christopher Benz Memorial Baseball Tournament will take place are three area ball fields.
Aiming to raise awareness of the heartache that accompanies those families afflicted by suicide, the tournament will once again come on a combo platter of a few ball games, and a presentation that Janet Benz will tell you needs to be heard.
Janet’s son Chris took his own life in 2007. An Armstrong High School senior at the time, Chris was just 17.
That following summer, Janet Benz organized a baseball tournament in her son’s honor, turning his passion for baseball into an opportunity to get her message out to as many people as possible.
This year, that will come in the form of Saturday, July 14 program on the Cooper varsity baseball field.
Beginning at noon, a proclamation from the City of New Hope declaring July 14 Suicide Prevention Day will kick-start a presentation that will also include an appearance by former Minnesota Twins catcher Tim Laudner, the presentation of the Chris Benz Memorial Fund grant to an area high school, and presentations form both SALI (Save A Life Initiative) and Life Source on the importance of preventing suicide.
The actual games for the tournament begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday, July 13, and they continue at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 14.
The nine-team tournament will be held at the Armstrong High School varsity baseball field, the Cooper High School varsity baseball field, and they 49th Street Ball Field in New Hope.
