Joliet seeks extension for IHSA baseball tournament

Joliet likely will miss a second year of the Illinois High School Association baseball tournament because of COVID-19, but there is hope for 2022 and 2023.

The IHSA has offered to extend its contract to play the Class 3A-4A tournament in Joliet because no games were played during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bob Navarro, president of the Heritage Corridor Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Joliet City Council Stadium Committee on Tuesday.

“It looks like 2021 will be canceled, as well,” Navarro said.

A five-year contract to play the IHSA baseball tournament at DuPage Medical Group Field ends with the 2021 season.

The Stadium Committee gave Navarro the nod to work out the extension with the IHSA.

The IHSA had verbally offered to extend the contract a year in light of no tournament in 2020, Navarro said. He believes the IHSA would consider extending the contract two years if the tournament is canceled again, as expected.

This would have been the 15th year that Joliet was the host city for the tournament, which typically brings in not only the teams but the players’ families into downtown Joliet.

The loss of the tournament has been one more pandemic-related blow to activity at the city-owned stadium.

Last summer, the Joliet Slammers created an eight-week, four-team baseball tournament at the stadium when the Frontier League to which the team belongs canceled its season. The prospects for a Frontier League season this year are uncertain.